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MISSION ON EARTH! 



A TREATISE ON 



NERVOUS DEBILITY 



AND 



PHYSICAL EXHAUSTION, 

BEING A SYNOPSI8 OF LECTURES DELIVERED AT 

The Museum of Anatomy, Science anfl Art, 

4S9 SIXTH AVENUE, NEW YOEK, 



L. J. JORDAN, M. I>, 



51 EAST TENTH STREET, 

(Bet. Broadway and University Place,) 
NEW YORK. 



» 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1871, 

By L. J. JORDAN, M. D. 

In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. ? 



^ 



-+•+- 



Introduction 5 

CHAPTER I. 
Anatomy and Physiology of the Generative Organs, 11 

CHAPTER II. 
General Debility 20 

CHAPTER III. 
Spermatorrhoea, Impotency, Sterility 68 

CHAPTER IV. 
Treatment of Spermatorrhoea, etc 91 

CHAPTER V. 
Marriage : Its Obligations and Excesses 102 

CHAPTER VI. 
Diseases of the Generative Organs Ill 

CHAPTER VII. 
Special Diseases 122 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Self-Diagnosis 134 

CHAPTER IX. 

Notes from our Case Book 141 

Cases of Complaints 158 

To Patients and Invalid Readers 178 



INTRODUCTION. 



-4^^- 



In commencing onr remarks on the highly important 
subject of Self-Pollution, we cannot impress too 
strongly on onr readers the Divine ordinance " increase 
and multiply ;" for by constantly bearing in mind the 
object for which we are sent into this world, it will at 
once be seen how sinful must be the practice of those 
who, by fatally anticipating the purposes of nature, are 
rendered incapable of procreation, and entail everlast- 
ing misery, shame, and ignominy on themselves here 
and hereafter. The seminal liquor, it must be observed, 
is the richest and most powerful of all the animal se- 
cretions ; it is, in fact, the very essence of life ; it is 
this fluid that strengthens our bodies, and, by render- 
ing the nervous system powerful, enables us to exercise 
our memory, imagination, and judgment for our wordly 
benefit and happiness. Now, if this important fluid be 
wasted in a manner which nature never intended, and 
by which not only the fluid itself is lost, but the ner- 
vous energy is also impaired and exhausted by undue 
excitement, what results must follow? In the first 



VI INTRODUCTION. 

place the nervous system of the masturbator becomes 
impaired ; the brain, the heart the lungs, become im- 
poverished, and hence arise melancholy, impotency, a 
bewildered mind, nervousness, and general decay of the 
system. 7 Tis then tnat the truth flashes across the 
mind, and the miserable victim of folly becomes aware 
of the extreme wretchedness of his situation, and that 
he is no longer a fit object for society ; a complete im- 
becile, incapable of sexual intercourse ; a man only in 
form, but not in substance, without the power of exer- 
cising his functions either of mind or body ; the former 
participating in the disease, becomes morbidly affected, 
and distrust, fear, extreme sensitiveness, and frequently 
madness ensue. 

Here then arises a proof of the importance and neces- 
sity of the arrangement whereby some well informed 
members of the medical profession may devote their 
exclusive attention to diseases arising from the undue 
excitement of the generative system, together with 
those incidental stages of acute disorder, which, if neg- 
lected, terminate in the horrible wasting forms of con- 
stitutional disorganization. 

To this part of the subject we have paid the most 
anxious and untiring attention from a very early period 
of our professional career. It is one, in fact, that not 
a day passes in which we are not consulted, either by 
professional visits, or by correspondents in different 
parts of the country, and we feel that we are not ex- 
ceeding the limits of truth, or transgressing the bounds 
of professional etiquette, in asserting that our mode of 



INTRODUCTION. VH 

practice, suggested and improved by long and multi- 
plied experience, has been productive of the happiest 
and most successful results in the treatment of sexual 
debility in both sexes. During our practice, also, we 
have too frequently marked the great extent of consti- 
tutional disease, primarily springing from neglectjor 
maltreatment of syphilitic diseaees. Any medical man 
who will make it his study, as it has been ours, to in- 
vestigate as far as possible in every case, the original 
channel through which disease or constitutional disor- 
der first found its entry into the system, will be aston- 
ished at the mass of human suffering which may be 
traced to venereal origin, although its primary symptoms 
may have been for years apparently eradicated from 
the frame. Nor do the sources of this misfortune lie 
very deep from observation. The malady generally 
commences its attack in early life, before experience 
has overcome the short-sighted heedlessness of youth, 
and taught it to look beyond the pains and pleasures of 
the passing moment. Delicacy or shame will not allow 
tho sufferer to seek assistance until the poison has ac- 
quired a strength and virulence too alarming to be 
neglected ; the patient then, instead of applying to his 
usual professional friend, flies to some unskillful prac- 
titioner, who temporarily arrests the external symptoms, 
and discharges him as cured. Thus matters go on until 
the malady becomes constitutional ; when the patient 
is at last compelled to place himself under the treat- 
ment of those who, at an early period, might have pre- 
served his constitution untainted, and his body com- 



VIII INTRODUCTION. 

paratively uninjured by the ravages of this insidious 
disease. 

It is some years since the idea first occurred to us 
that a popular treatise, divested as much as possible of 
technical language, would be of much avail in counter- 
acting the effects of the complaint, resulting from 
maltreatment or neglect, by directing attention to its 
early symptoms, and by demonstrating as clearly as 
possible the consequences resulting from neglect therof 
— by the general contamination of the system which 
must necessarily follow. Under this impression we 
have ventured to submit the following pages, and trust 
their utility may be acknowledged ; we are desirous of 
explaining that they are not intended to supersede 
medical aid in any stage of the disorder, but that, on 
the contrary, we would impress upon our reader, if 
need be, the prudence of having immediate recourse to 
it in the earliest stages of the disease. 

In the following pages we have as briefly as possible 
given a description of the organs of generation, and of 
their physiology, so that any one may readily under- 
stand their importance in the general economy ; and 
secondly, we have brought under the notice of the 
reader the causes, varieties, symptoms, and peculiarities of 
these disorders of the generative organs, which either 
partially or totally obstruct them in the due discharge 
of those important functions which they are ordained 
to perform in the human system, and on the proper 
discharge of which not only rests the happiness of in- 
dividuals in families, but also the welfare of empires ; 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

for it is not to be disputed that on the degree of vigor 
and healthy action of those organs in the parents de- 
pends in a great measure the health of their offspring, 
daily experience presents to our notice painful and not 
unfrequently loathsome evidence of this fact. Hence 
it behooves all persons, before entering into the married 
state, to enquire whether or not they are in such bodily 
health as may insure that the marriage bed shall not 
become a hell bed of disease, whence naught but weak 
and puny offspring shall be produced — living evidences 
of folly and brutally selfish passion, How degraded, 
and utterly lost to all finer feelings which alone can 
ennoble us, must that man be, who, knowing himself 
to be tainted by disease, or so debilitated by early and 
guilty excesses that it is next to impossible that he 
should give life to any but tainted and doomed progeny 
— doomed in the mother's womb ! — yet dares to offer 
his polluted and shattered frame at the pure shrine of 
female love. 

To causes such as these may be traced much of the 
domestic unhappiness we daily see, and many of the 
serious diseases under which mankind suffers from one 
generation to another; therefore, reader, if you still 
be unmarried, let us beg of you to ponder well on these 
truths — truths, which if you neglect now, may at some 
future time painfully and vividly be recalled in your own 
family. 

The fearfully abused powers of the human generative 
system require the most cautious treatment ; our studies 
for many years past have been exclusively directed to 



X INTRODUCTION. 

the treatment of the debility and diseases resulting 
from self-pollution, venereal infection, loss of sexual 
power, and such complaints as arise from a disorganiza- 
tion of the reproductive powers, whether constitutional 
or acquired ; and in conclusion we may observe that all 
who apply for advice or assistance may always depend 
on that inviolable secrecy, sympathy, and skillful at- 
tention which have always proved the basis of the 
most extensive practice in special diseases^n the United 
States of America. 

L. J. JORDAN, M. D., 

51 East 10th Street, 

New York. 



CHAPTER I. 



ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF THE GENERATIVE 

ORGANS. 



In the present work, devoted to the consideration of 
special maladies, their causes, prevention, and treat- 
ment, it will not be necessary to enter upon a descriptive 
account of the anatomy of every part of the human 
body ; we shall therefore confine ourselves to that por- 
tion of the frame that is included in the subject- 
matter of our researches. We propose to treat solely 
of the diseases of the generative system, and their in- 
fluence on the constitution and intellect ; a brief des- 
criptiou, therefore, of their anatomical and physiological 
relations will be all that is requisite. A brief but accu- 
rate description of those parts, and their uses in the 
human economy, is necessary, in order that what fol- 
lows may be fully understood. 

The great importance of the organs of generation, 
and their preservation in a state of health and vigor, 
has been generally acknowledged ; in fact, the due and 
proper performance of the special functions with which 



12 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

they are charged has ever been considered essentially 
necessary to the health and well being of the economy, 
both physical and mental. They are of admirable con- 
struction, form and use ; and constitute a striking evi- 
dence of the wonderful skill and contrivance in the 
adaptation of a special mechanism in the system for 
the performance of one of the most important and es- 
sential functions — that of the propagation of the species. 
Unequaled in the delicacy of their texture, and the 
comparative minuteness of their structure, their pecu- 
liar fitness for the functions assigned them in the 
economy, when they are in a state of perfect integrity, 
excites the astonishment and admiration alike of the 
anatomist and the philosopher. Their very complexity, 
while it renders them liable to many disorders, by any 
of which their utility may be impaired, is wisely ren- 
dered subservient to the important purpose of separa- 
ting and purifying the vivifying flu id. 

The male organs of generation may be divided into 
the external and internal; the former comprising the 
penis, urethra, scrotum, and testicles ; and the latter, or 
internal, consisting of a considerable portion of the 
urethra, the tubes arising from the testicles, conveying 
the seed to the seminal vesicles themselves, the prostate 
and the veramontanum in the prostatic portion of the 
urethra, and indirectly all the organs engaged in the 
urinary affections, such as the kidneys, ureters, and the 
urinary bladders. 

The Kidneys, the organs solely engaged in the secre- 
tion of the urine, are glandular bodies of an oblong 



ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 13 

shape, seated od either side of the spine, upon and below 
the two last ribs, and behind the stomach and intestines, 
and are external to the peritoneum. The right kidney- 
is below the liver when a man is in the erect position, 
and the left below the spleen ; the right kidney is gen- 
erally the lower and the larger. In shape this organ 
resembles the kidney-bean. The secretion of the kid- 
neys is much influenced by the passions. We need only 
instance, in proof, the effects of fear on quadrupeds, 
infants, and even on men, in suddenly increasing the 
quantity of urine, and producing an insurmountable 
desire to void it. In patients laboring under some 
difficulty in passing urine, from the presence of one or 
more strictures, the mind referring to the complaint 
will often greatly increase the secretion of that fluid, 
and multiply the call to pass it from the body, and thus 
greatly add to the already existing irritation, and per- 
haps set up a new disease in the part. 

The Ureters are long, hollow tubes, the continuation 
of the pelves of the kidneys. There is one on each side 
of the body, and they pass downwards, and slightly 
inwards to the back and lower part of the bladder. 
Their use is to convey the urine from the kidney into 
the bladder. 

The Bladder is situated in the lowest part of the 
body, which is called the pelvis. It is of considerable 
size, and admits of distension to a degree that would 
hardly be credited, were it not a well established fact. 
This organ in man lies directly on the bowels, but in 
woman the womb intervenes between it and the rectum 



14 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

It is of an oval shape, and is the great receptacle of the 
urine. It has three coats, one of them being composed 
of muscular fibres, the construction of which causes 
the expulsion of the urine ; it has on that account, been 
called the detrusor or expulsor urinw. 

The Prostate Gland, in shape and size, somewhat 
resembles a chestnut. It is situated below and behind 
the bladder, and above and in front of the rectum. 

The Urethra is a membranous canal, extending from 
the neck of the bladder to the end of the penis or yard ; 
it is very vascular, and possesses a certain degree of 
elasticity. Its membranes are very thin, and almost 
transparent, and without fibres, so that in itself it does 
not possess the power of muscular contraction and re- 
laxation. It is, however, provided with muscles, the 
action of which is to assist the expulsion of urine, and 
also of the seed during copulation. 

The Scrotum, or Purse, is a bag of skin, divided 
about the middle by a septum, so as to form two cavi- 
ties, in each of which a testicle is contained. 

The Testicles, or organs which secrete the semen, 
are supplied with blood by long and tenuous vessels 
which arise from the main arterial trunk, called the 
spermatic arteries ; the blood which they thus receive 
serves for the elimination and secretion of the seed — a 
process which is effected by the peculiar action of the 
testicles, and which secreting power gives these organs 
a value and importance in the human frame not even 
second to that which attaches to those generally re- 
garded by anatomists as the more noble, being those 



ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 15 

the destruction or serious impairment of the functions 
of which may involve the loss of life. The value which 
men place on these organs (the testicles), or rather on 
the due performance of their functions, is rendered evi- 
dent by the fact that suicide is not infrequently caused 
by their supposed or real imperfection ; and that men 
on whom the operation of castration has been performed, 
in consequence of cancerous or other serious disease 
affecting the testicles, generally become moping and 
melancholy, and speedily perish. The same result 
occurs when, from a similar cause, the penis has been 
amputated. 

Eunuchs, who have been castrated prior to the pos- 
session of those feelings which nature causes to spring 
up in man after the period of pube/ty, are of course not 
subject to the same degree of depression and wretched- 
ness of mind and body as are those who are rendered 
impotent after having shared in the happiness and de- 
light of matrimonial intercourse. Their disgust of life 
arises from witnessing the comforts which others enjoy, 
from which they are forever debarred, but which they 
have had no means of fully appreciating. There is a 
marked difference in the external characteristics of a 
man and of a eunuch. The latter are rendered, by the 
degrading operation to which they have been subjected, 
more effeminate in personal appearance than are those 
who are in the full vigor and enjoyment of manhood. 
The voice resembles that of children, the hair is thin 
and delicate, the limbs are small, the beard and whisk- 
ers do not grow, or at best are thin and scattered, and 



16 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

the mental faculties do not attain either vigor or pene- 
tration. Most of these changes and differences in the 
constitution not unfrequently follow the operation of 
castration, when performed during manhood, if it he 
complete — that is, if hoth testicles have heen removed. 

The testicles are generally two in numher, one on 
each side of the scrotum or purse ; but cases have been 
published in which there has been only one testicle ; 
and in others, again, there have been found three, four, 
and even, although very rarely, five. The older writers, 
by whom some of these cases have been mentioned, 
considered the possessors of so unusual a number of 
testicles to be more than ordinary salacious. 

It occasionally happens that the testicles do not at- 
tain their full size and powers of secreting semen. This 
state has been termed an arrest of development — a phrase 
meaning that the organs at a certain period of life, 
prior to puberty, have ceased to grow ; generally pro- 
duced from an early indulgence in self-pollution. A 
case has been described of a gentleman who, when in 
his twenty-sixth year, had a penis and testicle which 
were not larger than those of a boy eight years old ; 
and another of a man, thirty years old, in whom those 
oreans presented a similar appearance. Such instances 
are not beyond the influence of medicine, nnless per- 
haps, when they occur in persons of idiots. 

Wasting or diminution in the size and power of the 
organs may occur at any age. The testicle is generally 
of the proper shape, although diminished in size, but 
feels soft, having lost its elasticity and firmness. It is 



ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 17 

pale in texture, and its blood vessels appear to be less 
in size than in the healthy state. The secretion con- 
tained in the semineferous tubes is entirely devoid of 
spermatic granules and spermatozoa, the nature and use 
of which will be mentioned in a short time. It some- 
times happens that the organ undergoes what is called 
the fatty degeneration. The spermatic cord is usually 
affected by an extension of the disease ; the nerves 
shrink, the blood-vessels are reduced in size and num- 
ber, and the cremaster muscle disappears. 

When disease of the organ is the cause of its atro- 
phied condition, it becomes altered in shape, being un- 
even and irregular, and sometimes elongated, as well as 
diminished in size and weight. The proper glandular 
structure also seems to have nearly if not altogether 
disappeared. 

Among the causes of this atrophy of the testicle, may 
be enumerated impeded circulation, local inflammation, 
whether arising from a special cause, or from the trans- 
fer of inflammation to the testicles. Excess in sexual 
intercourse and onanism are also efficient causes of an 
atrophied condition of these important organs. They 
will be alluded to more in detail hereafter. Their ac- 
tion is generally preceded by a low kind of local in- 
flammation. 

Injuries of the head, especially of the back part, have 
not unfrequently been the cause of atrophy of these 
organs, aud it has been known to occur without any 
apparent cause. 

The fact that injuries of a severe nature affecting the 



18 ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

back part of the head are sometimes followed by such 
a result, would tend to support the views of the phre- 
nologists, who contend that the seat of sexual desire is 
in the cerebellum, which is there located, and between 
which and the organs of generation they say there is 
great sympathy. The brain, either in its entire, or in a 
particular part, undoubtedly exercises great influence 
on the desire for sexual intercourse. In fact, the influ- 
ence of the mind on the orgrns of generation, and of 
the latter on the mind, is completely reciprocal. 

So much similitude is there in the structure of the 
brain and of the testicle, as well as a most extraordi- 
nary sympathy between them, that experience in the 
course of a practice extending through a series of years 
has demonstrated to me, that there are many cases 
where the human mind suffers under a species of de- 
rangement in consequence of diseases of the organs of 
generation, especially from tabes dorsalis. 

The Penis consists of the cavernous bodies (corpora 
cavernosa), and of the spongy body (corpus spongiosum), 
the latter terminating in the gland or glans. These 
are enveloped in a loose folding of common integuments. 

The absorbents of the penis are very numerous, and 
terminate in the glands of the groin. 

The spongy substance of the urethra, which forms 
the glans penis, is covered externally with an exceed- 
ingly thin membrane or cuticle, under which are placed 
the very sensitive nervous papilse, which are the chief 
seat and cause of pleasure and pain in this part. We 
may now understand why many, in the venereal act 



ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 19 

have not the glans distended, though the whole penis 
is, at the same time, turgid ; because the glans belongs 
entirely to the cavernous body of the urethra ; and if 
that body be paralytic or weakened from any preceding 
or existing cause — and this we have often known to 
proceed from irregular practices — so that the spongy 
body of the urethra cannot be distended, impotence 
will arise, which, if not perfectly understood, cannot be 
cured by any physician. 



CHAPTER II. 

OF SELF-POLLUTION OR ONANISM — THE CONCEALED 
CAUSE OF SEXUAL WEAKNESS, IMPOIENCE, 1 OCAL 
AND GENERAL DEBILITY, ETC. 



Having in that branch of our professional duties, to 
which we have more especially devoted our attention, 
witnessed the heart-rending effects resulting from the 
practices alluded to under the above title ; and this, 
alas, in the majority of instances, from utter ignorance 
of the sin and danger thereby incurred, we feel that 
while writing a book on the subject of Generative In- 
firmities, we should be neglecting our duty, did we not, 
to the best of our ability, show in glaring colors, the 
enormity of the sin, and deteriorating effects of " Onan- 
ism," that unnatural practice by which persons of either 
sex defile their bodies alone, in secret, whilst yielding 
to filthy imaginations they endeavor to imitate and pro- 
cure to themselves those sensations which attend sexual 
intercourse ; the habit ascribed by poets to 

"The solitary monk, recluse, obscene," 

and those who in the ardor of inconsiderate youth suffer 
themselves to be governed by passion rather than rea- 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 21 

son ; whose sexual imaginations impel them to antici- 
pate the ability of manhood, ere vigor has established its 
proper empire ; demolishing the delicate ground- work 
of physical energy, soliciting an age of disgraceful im- 
becility, and bringing, ere middle life breaks on the 
summer of adolescence, all the sensible infirmities of 
senility ; producing in its impetuous current, such an 
assemblage of morbid feelings, that life often becomes 
a wearisome burden, and its endurance beyond the 
power of reason to sustain. This revolting and de- 
structive vice, alluded to in the 38th chapter, 9th and 
10th verses of Genesis, as the sin of Onan (hence its 
name), is doubtless placed there for our warning ; and 
as an indication of our Creator's just abhorrence of 
such unnatural sin. 

This unfortunate delusion is usually first communi- 
cated at schools, or public seminaries, sometimes at the 
early age of nine or ten, before the subject of it can be 
aware of its awful consequences, hence the absolute 
importance of a virtuous education to restrain unruly 
passions at this critical period, when youth begins to 
set aside the authority of the parent — for precisely as 
it is with spring time, so it is with youth. If the hus- 
bandman would have useful produce, he must plough 
the soil, and sow the seed, otherwise the autumnal crop 
will be but weeds and refuse ; so is the period of youth 
(when the conscience is tender, the heart susceptible, 
the imagination vivid, and the cares of the world some- 
what distant), of vast importance, as the favorable time 
for receiving the seeds of useful knowledge, and right 



22 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

impressions, out of which the bloom and fruitfulness 
of future character may grow. If the education be 
neglected now, antagonistic principles, error, vanity 
and vice, will spring up as luxuriantly as the weeds of 
a neglected field, furnishing a rich harvest of future 
regrets and sorrows; and with every delay in right 
cultivation, the problem becomes increasingly doubtful, 
whether human nature will ever grow anything but 
tares. 

"Alas ! for those whose life and opening morn, 
No type hath shown of nature's smiling spring." 

The indolent husbandman may retrieve his error by 
redoubled industry when the season comes round again ; 
but youth goes, and never returns. 

" For life, alas ! here knows no second spring," 

The principle of shame, and habit of self-denial, 
ought to be strongly impressed on the young mind 
before the arrival of this period of life. Dissolute com- 
panions, dalliance between the sexes, and those high- 
colored extravagant fictions which influence the imagin- 
ation, and excite a state of morbid sensibility, ought to 
be cautiously guarded against. The passions awakened 
before their natural season, are the common destroyers 
of the youth of both sexes ; and after they are fully es- 
tablished, too much attention cannot be paid to the 
choice of associates, the selection of recreations, etc. 
To keep the mind and body in a state of constant em- 
ployment, and to observe temperance in diet and drink, 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 23 

are the most essential correctives, morally speaking, of 
the inexperience, enthusiasm, and impetuosity of young 
persons. These remarks are equally applicable to the 
correction, as to the prevention of bad habits. This 
task is, however, by so much the more difficult. 

As this disgusting habit commits the most unrestricted 
ravages upon youth, and insomuch as it strikes at the 
very root of society, at the increase and propagation 
of the human race, by enervating and debilitating the 
springs of life, it will be obvious that no language can 
be sufficiently strong in its reprobation, for long experi- 
ence teaches that of all the voluptuous and dangerous 
pleasures that strew the path of youth, none are so 
mischievous as that of Onanism, which unhappily offers 
two powerful inducements for its perpetration : first, it 
can be practiced in seclusion ; and secondly, its effects 
on the health and personal appearance are not so im- 
mediately apparent, as, for instance, the paleness which 
succeeds a night of drunken and sleepless revelry. For 
a time, the solitary, vicious gratification may be con- 
cealed ; the evil consequences are not known, and con- 
sequently not anticipated ; present excitement banishes 
the thought and fear of future suffering, but from the 
insidious manner in which this undermining process is 
going on, the truth will most assuredly one day present 
itself in awfully distressing reality. The miserable 
sufferer is not sensible, it may be, for a long time, of the 
slow, yet certain change that is passing over him ; the 
debility and paleness perceptible to others, have crept 
over him insidiously — no one part of the body feels 



24 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

weakened more than another : as to the mind, however, 
the case is different ; a failure of memory being some- 
times the earliest indication of mischief. The evils 
resulting from self-pollution are two-fold — such is the 
mysterious nature of the union existing between mind 
and body, that any physically bad habit, while it un- 
dermines the bodily health, produces a corresponding 
depression upon the animal spirits ; the brain and ner- 
vous system become weakened and diseased, until one 
common rain involves both alike in destruction. If 
self-pollution have unhappily gained the mastery over 
the young spirit, if it have become an admitted habit, 
the energies of the body, which ought to be generally 
directed to the purposes of nourishment and growth, 
are employed in the reparation of a criminal loss ; and 
the purposes of natural sustenance, as well as the sup- 
port of the bodily functions, are altogether superseded, 
or at least imperfectly provided for. 

An idea may be formed of the nature of this loss, and 
of the sacred guard which health imposes upon its due 
preservation, by observing the consequences resulting 
from its unnecessary and too frequent evacuation. It 
has been asserted by physiologists, that the loss of one 
ounce of seminal fluid, by self-pollution or nocturnal 
emissions, weakens the system more completely than 
the abstraction of forty ounces of blood ; without lend- 
ing ourselves to the accuracy of extreme statements, ifc 
is sufficiently clear that its due elaboration may be re- 
garded as of no small consequence to the system. Hip- 
pocrates observed that "the seed of man arose from all 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 25 

the humors of his body, and is the most valuable part of 
them." He says in another place, u when a person loses 
his seed, he loses his vital spirit," so that it is not as- 
tonishing its too frequent evacuation should enervate 
the body, which is thereby deprived of the purest of 
its humors. Another remarks, " the semen is kept in 
the seed vessels, until the man make proper use of it, or 
nocturnal emissions deprive him of it." Its importance, 
not merely for the direct end it was designed to fulfill 
in the progress of generation, but for other purposes, is 
also indicated by the changes which take place in the 
animal economy at the age of puberty, when this fluid 
begins to be secreted : the voice and features change, 
the beard grows, the genitals become covered with hair, 
the whole body assumes a more rotund and manly ap- 
pearance, the muscular system acquiring that firmness 
and solidity which chiefly marks the distinction between 
man and woman. 

Loss of blood, if repeated, even though trivial in 
quantity, is a sure and readily-acknowledged index of 
corresponding failure of the vital powers; but the 
daily drain upon the nervous system irom the undue 
loss of this most elaborate secretion, is still more rapidly 
destructive. The debility thereby produced, is greater 
than any other, insomuch as important and extensive 
portions of the brain are concerned in its production. 
Physiology teaches us, that phosphorus enters largely 
into the composition of the brain and nerves, and as 
this substance also forms an essential element of the 
seminal fluid, the injury accruing to the system from 



26 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

any unnatural loss of this secretion is readily explained, 
and this fact alone affords a by no means insignificant 
indication as to the treatment of such cases. Who then 
can doubt the great importance of this fluid, or wonder 
at those evils its unnecessary evacuation is sure to 
entail ? 

Perverted indulgence in this horribly unnatural pro- 
pensity undermines aud poisons all enjoyment, induc- 
ing such misanthropic feelings, as absolutely to unfit 
the sufferer from all the ordinary business and enjoy- 
ments of life ; so completely is the poor creature sub- 
dued by the wretched infatuation, that while conscious 
of the change that is taking place, he appears to have 
lost the power of self-control, or of making a proper 
effort to recover his position among his fellows. Torn 
by the contending passions of remorse and sensuality, 
his mind becomes the transcript of himself, moody, un- 
happy, ferocious, or miserable, distrustful, suspicious, 
gloomy, or childish ; often a strange medley of them 
all, or presenting in the revolutions of a few brief 
hours, as many aspects of character as a fickle, uncer- 
tain, unmanly intellect can well appropriate. 

"A withered frame! — a ruined mind! — 
The wreck by passion left behind." 

Sensibly alive to the impossibility of mixing in the 
ordinary enjoyments of life, and of deriving from sex- 
ual intercourse any of those thrilling delights which 
God, for the wisest purposes, has inseparably appended 
to that act, he becomes melancholy, dispirited, dejected j 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 27 

there passes over his mind a change which induces him 
to avoid all rational intercourse with his species; the 
language of his actions is, 

" Man delights not me, nor woman either." 

He bids a gloomy farewell to the cheerful society and 
haunts of men ; the thousand anxieties and excitements 
of trade, politics, and commercial ambition, appear to 
his indolent imagination as either too great for his hopes, 
or foreign to his desires. Imbued with a moody misan- 
thropy, the natural result of his own vices, he vents his 
splenetic complaints against the world at large, or peev- 
ishly declaims respecting the darker side of human feel- 
ing and character. Thus he becomes isolated, his mind 
vegetating on his own purient and diseased fancies. 
Once, perhaps, there was the budding promise of future 
usefulness and activity ; now, how fearfully changed, 
the dupe of a lust alike horrible in imagination as well 
as in act. The blossoms of youth, perhaps the flower of 
manhood, the supremacy of the mind, all degraded, 
obliterated, gone ! 

Some continue the practice from feelings of despair. 
Conscious of its ruinous tendency, and desirous of re- 
sisting the unmanly habit, they have sought intercourse 
with women, but to their dismay have found themselves 
powerless ; and ashamed, vexed, dispirited, they forego 
any future attempt, lest they should again be subjected 
to the humiliation of failure. Abashed, the sufferer 
shrinks from the gaze of his fellows, fancying suspicion 
in the eye of everyone who looks upon his sunken, hag- 



28 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

gard, pale, unmeaning, inexpressive face, his dull, lack- 
lustre eye, his thin and tremulous form— which all be- 
tray him to the practiced observer. 

It is difficult to depict a more truly miserable being 
than the slave of licentiousness. His imagination burn- 
ing with filthy, unnatural glow; his bodily organs, 
taxed to the utmost, weary and jaded, refuse to obey 
the stimulus of that never-slumbering depravity, which 
goads his fancy in the darkness of night, in the dreams 
of his broken rest, and in the worse than dreamy ab- 
stractions of the cheerless day. Tormented with desires 
he can never gratify ; shut out from those enjoyments 
accorded only to virtuous moderation ; and like Tan- 
talus, thirst is consuming him, unmitigated by every 
attempt to force for a moment his mouth below the 
wave. The vulture retribution is preying upon his 
vitals, and furnishing him a striking fulfillment of the 
prophetic warning, "There is nothing done in secret 
that shall not be revealed/' neither " hid," even from 
the recognition of mortals, that shall not ultimately be 
made, even to them, evident as the noonday. 

Self-pollution entails upon its victims, marks as legible 
to the eye that can understand them, as the scars of 
small-pox. How much more perceptible to the eye of 
Him by whom all actions are weighed — to Him who 
knoweth the secrets of all hearts— from whose scrutiniz- 
ing eye nothing can possibly escape ! Can we produce 
a more fearful illustration of the stupefying effects 
of Onanism, than the fact, that the victim of this 
filthy abuse fears not in secrecy, though the eye of God 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 29 

is upon hiin, to do that which if caught perpetrating, 
even by a child, or more especially a woman, he would 
redden with shame, and if possible, hide his head for 
ever . Dreadful depravity ! strange perversity ! delib- 
erately and secretly to deprive himself, by a worse than 
suicidal madness, of the power of natural enjoyment — 
to entail misery upon himself in this world, and no 
hope of escape from condemnation in the next. I may 
here quote from the late Sir Astley Cooper, who stated 
in one of his lectures that, " if one of these miserable 
cases could be depicted from the pulpit, as an illustra- 
tion of the evil effects of a vicious and intemperate 
course of life, it would, I think, strike the mind with 
more terror than all the preaching in the world. The 
irritable state of the patient leads to the destruction of 
life, and in this way, annually, great numbers perish. 
Undoubtedly, the list is considerably augmented from 
maltreatment, and the employment of injudicious reme- 
dies." 

The first of the following cases is interesting, from 
the circumstance of an eruption on the face, to which 
the patient had been subject, being of undoubted syph- 
ilitic origin, derived hereditarily, though there are 
medical men who strenuously deny the possibility of 
this disease occurring for the first time at maturity — 
an undoubted fallacy, as we can prove. Many other 
hereditary diseases, such as gout, consumption, scro- 
fula, cancer, etc., first show themselves at this period ; 
and why should it be impossible in the case of syphilis ? 

The other cases, as embodying all the more prominent 



30 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

symptoms of the alarming infatuation we have endeav- 
ored to denounce, cannot he better given than in the 
very words of the writers themselves. 



Case No. 1477. 

Hartford, Conn. 

Dear Sir . I have read your Treatise, and wish that 
I had seen it earlier, and now hasten to lay hefore you 
my case ; hoping you will advise me into the means, if 
means there he, hy which I may regain my former 
health. Should your advice he a course which I can 
adopt, without too great restraint, and one affording no 
practical inconvenience to the duties of my puhlic ca- 
pacity, I will endeavor to fulfill it as honestly and 
frankly as I now make to you the following confession : 

At a puhlic school, and at the age of sixteen, I first 
contracted self-abuse. At eighteen I left school, and 
for the space of a year gave myself up to a moderate 
use of this wretched hahit. At nineteen, my health 
was so impaired, that a physician of high standing was 
called in, and my general debility then accounted for, 
(I, of course, keeping my own counsel.) Cod-liver oil, 
tonics, and change of residence were recommended. I 
was accordingly sent to Florida. Here I hecame enam- 
ored with a very pretty girl, and then my habit became 
converted into a passion. That which I could not ob- 
tain in reality, I sought for in imagination and self- 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 31 

abuse. At twenty -one, I left for college. During my 
college life I still continued the practice of self-abuse, 
even up to this present time. So, from the age of six- 
teen to that of twenty-five, I have continued in a mod- 
erate abuse of myself. I have given it up for a month 
at a time, but so strong is the temptation, that even 
religious conviction can scarce overcome the will; and 
the force of conscience is entirely hushed by the dic- 
tates of a lustful imagination. I have now confided to 
you that which I never dared to breathe to any living 
creature, and even in this to you, I feel the acuteness 
of self-abasement and humiliation, which your kind 
counsel and treatment may, by the blessing of God, 
assist to remove. 

I will now endeavor to give you a sketch of my per- 
sonal appearance, age, occupation, and general symp- 
toms. I am 27 years of age, unmarried. I stand nearly 
six feet ; am dark, with a ruddy expression of counten- 
ance j very thin ; gait stiff and wants elasticity and 
firmness ; eyes generally weak, very black under the 
eyeballs, are also sometimes very hot and uncomforta- 
ble, and feel sore in their sockets. Hair is generally 
dry and for the most part thin and weak. My face, 
too, for the last five years, especially at Spring (just 
now), and Autumn, presents a very unpleasant appear- 
ance — red scaly blotches of a syphilitic nature cover my 
chin and forehead. The former makes it very unpleas- 
ant for shaving. I showed it about a month ago, to my 
"medical adviser" here, (but did not tell him the sus- 
pected cause,) he said it looked like secondary symptoms. 



32 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

I told him, however, what is the truth — that I had 
never contracted any venereal disease. He prescribed 
for me a decoction of Sarsaparilla, and I have been tak- 
ing this with but little real benefit. I have for the 
most part a good appetite, and never suffer from indi- 
gestion ; I am, however, very subject to cold feet, and 
the extremities, including my penis, are often very cold ; 
of late, too, I have had sleepless nights, owing princi- 
pally, I fancy, to want of circulation. I have, in fact, 
all the more common symptoms of general debility. 
My memory seems sometimes to be failing me, and 
after no very violent exercise, the blood immediately 
rushes to my face, and both my face and hands are 
often suffused with involuntary blushes. I am rather 
an irregular liver, fond of good ale, and good things in 
moderation ; do not care much for wine or spirits, 
except whiskey, a drink of which I take occasionally 
the last thing ; I am a smoker, but this in moderation. 
I have plenty of good walking exercise, and live in a 
healthy part of the country. I am no lover of books, 
and am no advocate of sedentary habits ; my bowels are 
generally very costive, with this, my spirits are de- 
pressed. Now let me add a description of that part 
immediately affected, i, e. } my Penis. This, when in a 
pendulous state, is very small indeed, the end or glans 
is much swollen, and when an erection takes place, 
which is frequently the case, it is very hard and in- 
flamed. 

I have experienced such a thing as an involuntary 
emission caused by a dream, but such a thing is un- 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 33 

usual; I always experience fearful erections in the 
morning when first I awake, and my eyes smart very 
much. My penis, too, when sitting, writing or reading, 
and in a depended state, frequently becomes hot, and 
unpleasant sensations of itching occur in the glaus; 
when this is the case, I fear that external pressure 
would cause an emission. I care not now, too, so much 
for women's society — I used formerly to desire it much. 
My urine, too, becomes affected, and has a strong smell. 
My principal ailments are want of circulation, frequent 
constipation, and the unpleasant appearance of syphilis 
in my face. Now, Doctor, having given a faithful 
description of my symptoms, with a history of my 
wretched habit, I hasten to bring this unpleasant com- 
munication to an end. Enclosed is a post office order 
for $5, the amount of your fee. And now, relying that 
you will assist me to break off that which is fast ruin- 
ing my brightest prospects, and bringing me down to an 
early and ignominious grave. If you can guarantee, by 
your treatment, a speedy recovery, I shall ever consider 
you my best friend. 

Ever faithfully yours, 

A. B, 



34 GENERAL DEBILITY. 



Case No. 1736. 

Chicago, III. 
Dear Sir : — I have for years been suffering from that 
species of disease to which you have particularly di- 
rected your attention. The seeds of it were implanted 
in my constitution when quite a child, through the un- 
principled conduct of a domestic servant. When about 
fourteen, I had an illness, which our physician traced 
to this cause. I recovered to outward appearance ; but 
do not seem ever to have been thoroughly cured. I now 
believe that I have been subject to occasional emissions 
during the night ever since that time ; at least, I know 
I have been for a considerable period. * 

A white, fatty matter also collects between the glans 
and the outer skin, and the glans is somewhat inflamed. 
There is always more or less of an eruption on my 
back; my face is also subject to a similar eruption; 
my countenance is sallow and unhealthy looking, and 
my face, as well as the rest of my body, extremely 
thin. I feel much weaker than I naturally ought. 
I often experience a most uneasy sensation in my 
breast ; my hearing is impaired, and my voice has 
lost its natural strength and clearness. My mental 
faculties, too, are much clouded and weakened — my 
memory, in particular, is affected. I am a student — 
have studied pretty hard, and not very unsuccessfully; 
but I have often felt an incapacity, and sometimes a dis- 
inclination for study, which I knew were not natural. 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 35 

though I knew not to what to attribute them till I read 
your book. I have never been in the habit of using 
tobacco, or drinking anything, save water. 

I am engaged more than four hours a day in teach- 
ing; during that time I scarcely sit down, and have to 
talk a great deal. I am about the middle height, rather 
slender, though naturally strong and wiry. I am, I 
think, pretty easily affected by medicine. I am afraid 
I have not given you a sufficiently full and clear ac- 
count of my disease. Perhaps your experience may en- 
able you to propose a few questions, answers to which 
might be of use to you in judging of my case. 

I await your answer with the greatest anxiety, as I 
am afraid, from the disease having got so confirmed 
in my system, that it will be scarcely possible to eradi- 
cate it. But I beg, that you will give me your candid 
opinion. 

Case No. 1129. 

Buffalo, N. Y. 

Dear Sir: — I received your " Practical Observa- 
tions " from my friend, and its perusal makes me hope 
that you will be .able to afford me such help as will 
bring me back again to the enjoyment of health and 
happiness. 

I am twenty-nine years old. Since the age of about 
fifteen, I made myself guilty of the sin of self-pollu- 
tion. Awakened to a sense of my position when being 
on the point of marrying, I had, in the summer of last 



36 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

year, recourse to Dr. , from whom I had a course 

of medicine which certainly had a favorable effect upon 
my system, as for a long time after I did not feel so 
thoroughly wretched as I had done before ; and, hoping 
that the improvement noticed in my system would fin- 
ally prove a cure, I married in November last. To de- 
scribe what I have suffered since — how my sin stands 
before me night and day, in the most horrible forms, 
would be impossible ; moreover I suppose you will be 
able to conceive what must be the sensations of a being, 
not entirely devoid of feeling, when he finds it impossi- 
sible to respond to the loving embraces of a pure, inno- 
cent being, whose expectations of bliss and happiness 
in married life are most cruelly destroyed. A cruel 
doubt, inseparable from the state of mind of sufferers, 
like me, and the impossibility of affording the expense 
of treatment, prevented me having recourse to any med- 
ical assistance. Dr. — *s recommendation has lighted 

a hope again in my heart. Oh ! that I might, like him, 
have to thank you for a cure. Hoping this, I confi- 
dently place myself in your hands, and beseech you to 
be kind enough to say if you think a cure in my case 
possible. I trust you will charge as low as possible, 
considering that an innocent being, my wife, is depend- 
ent upon my exertions for her existence. 

My symtoms are as follows : — Loss of memory ; a 
continual feeling of languidness, being tired with the 
slightest exertion ; nervousness ; when thinking about 
anything earnestly, rny head turns quite dizzy. Noc- 
turnal escapes have left me during two or three years 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 37 

but the penis is very small, and I am without feeling 
and desire. 

I enclose your fee ; and hoping to hear from you by 
return of post, I remain, etc. 



Case No. 759. 

Philadelphia, Pa. 

Dear Sir : — I took some of your medicines some 
time ago, with considerable advantage, and should have 
availed myself of your advice before now, but could 
not do so comfortably on account of money affairs, 
About sixteen months ago I left New York in a bad 
state of health ; my stomach, lungs, liver, etc., were 
thoroughly out of order, having worked in a small, ill- 
ventilated room, breathing impure air, making a very 
hearty meal towards evening off beef, etc., but scarcely 
eating anything next morning. However, I had saved 
money, had it deposited in the bank, and what with 
doctor's bills, and being out of health, causing me to 
neglect work, I have exhausted my stock, so that if J 
do not meet your demand iuimediafcelv, I hope you will 
have the kindness (though it is a great thing to ask, 
being a total stranger) to give me a little time to do so* 
I want my health improving, so that I can use my 
fingers, and get on my legs again. I enclose $5, and if 
yon can indulge me in the above request, I will pay you 
like a man ; feeling sorry that I did not hear of .vour 
skill sponer than I did, 



38 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

As to my syuitoms — in the first place, my height ie 
five feet nine laches, moderately fleshy; age twenty- 
nine (just), pale looking ; occupation, a painter (but I 
would just say that I do not feel much inconvenience 
at present in this respect, because I do not go to work 
before 9 o'clock, and can work as I feel disposed) ; hab- 
its pretty regular ; present symptoms are a little nervous 
debility if in company ; or if called to mental exercise, 
which is the case sometimes, I am seized with such an 
internal twitching, my lungs and stomach feel so racked, 
that I don't know where to put myself; when uuder 
this influeuce, my mouth becomes very dry, the breath 
raw and somewhat unpleasant, saliva thick, but when 
at ease mentally, it soon passes off, but I often feel a 
close morbid sensation in the lungs, sometimes pain 
especially with some motions of the body or arms, 
which causes me to think my lungs not so strong as 
they have been. Drowsy, heavy sensations, which 
cause my eyes to be very dull, marked underneath with 
a little unnatural color. I am not troubled with a 
cough, but when I do cough it is very husky, etc. The 
Doctor told me my lungs were sound, but I do not feel 
them so healthy as I should like, if it can be remedied. 
I can take in a considerable quantity of air, and hold it 
a long time without inconvenience. My tongue is 
coated in the morning, tinged with yellow. 

My parents are living, getting a good age, and we are 
— as a family, healthy. When I was quite a lad, I con- 
tracted, from example, that horrid practice, continued 
to do so two or three years, but I became so disgusted 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 39 

with it, that I relinquished it ; but I find that I have 
been troubled with the consequences ever since — want 
of manliness, frettingj heavy forebodings, etc.; troubled 
with nocturnal emissions (but irregularly) ; sometimes 
pained a little in the left testicle ; a little fleshy sub- 
stance just above, void urine well, etc. Hair grows 
pretty well, whiskers, etc.; can walk ten or twelve 
miles without much fatigue. I am afraid you will 
think me tedious, but I feel anxious to give you every 
particular. I sleep well, eat well, but am troubled 
with internal morbid sensations ; I want to feel as I 
have felt, prior to twelve months ago, healthy ; manli- 
ness always deficient ; my teeth are in good condition, 
a thick matter accumulating around them. Hoping to 
hear from you as soon as convenient, and that you will 
agree with my request, I am yours, truly. 

Another patient writes — 

Case No, 1693. 

Rochester, N. Y. 

Doctor — I can scarcely express the shame and con- 
demnation with which I have been almost overwhelmed 
for the last few weeks, since I was made aware of the 
fearful consequences of that soul destroying sin, " self- 
pollution," which I have been addicted to for the last 
seven years. 

I am now twenty-four years of age, stand five feet 
nine inches in height, and weigh ten stone. My general 



<C GENERAL DEBILITY. 

health is good, my strength is also good ; but my appe* 
tike fails me very often ; by the time I have consumed 
tw:> or three mouthfuls, I feel a desire to stop ; my 
banger is quite appeased; sometimes I feel quite mel- 
ancholy ; at other times, I have a superabundance of 
animal spirits. I am not much subject to pain, but 
sometimes after I have committed the act, I have felt a 
slight pain in the left testicle, and at other times in the 
passage of the yard ; at other times, I have felt a dull 
pain in the left side for two or three hours at once. I 
am subject to frequent and nightly emissions ; in void- 
ing urine, I have seen seminal fluid run away from me 
thin and unelaborated, especially when straining out 
the last few drops, and the end of the yard is almost 
constantly wet with fluid that escapes from me I have 
had much trouble and thought respecting one thing, 
and I do not know whether such a case ever came under 
your notice or not ) it is this, the end of the yard still re- 
tains the foreskin or nut, the glans are not yet perma- 
nently denuded. Please inform me by return, whether 
such a thing will be troublesome, if I thought of being 
married. Do not be afraid of giving your opinion ; let 
me know the worst. Would to God that you could cure 
me of this horrid malady. I was once a subject to 
religious impressions ; but now I may truly say with 
our Lord, " The state of that man is seven times worse 
than the first.''' I shall know no bounds to my feelings, 
if you will kindly cure me. I may as well state my 
occupation, which I at first felt an objection to. * * 
X feel often very dull and heavy about the head as 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 41 

though from determination of blood ; and mj superin- 
tendent often taxes me with being careless, when at 
the same time, it is through an impaired memory. I 
sometimes forget myself altogether, as being uncon- 
scious of persons being present. All this is to be attri- 
buted to that horrid practice. I shall do my utmost to 
recommend others. I am under the impression, that I 
can detect cases of this description, and will spend a 
portion of time in the work. I think I know, yes, I am 
sure of one. I do not thiuk I can inform you of any- 
thing else. I enclose your fee, hoping to have a reply 
early, with the necessary instructions. 

P. S. — As I am universally known in this part, please 

make use of the name, , in sending your packages, 

which I hope you will secure from observation, sending 

me word previous. Address . Letters may be 

addressed to me in full. 

Such, and so sad, then, are the leading features of 
this soul and body destroying sin. 

To different minds, however, it is necessary to produce 
varying argument and illustration : We speak at least 
to those who have not yet cast off all fear, all reveren- 
tial regard for Holy Writ, and will, therefore, subjoin a 
few passages bearing evident reference to these crimes. 
St. Paul, in the 5th chapter-of the Epistle to the Ephe- 
sians, warns us, " Let no man deceive you with vain 
words; for because ot these things cometh the wrath of 
God upon the children of disobedience." " Keep thy- 
self pure," says the same apostle ; and again, u Unto the 



42 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

pure all things are pure; but unto them that are de- 
filed, nothing is pure ; but even their mind and con- 
science is defiled." — 1 Tim., v. 22 ; St. Paul's firet Epistle 
to the Thessalonians, chap. v. " And the things which 
he did displeased the Lord ; wherefore he slew him." — 
Gen. xxxviii. " For this is the will of God, even your 
sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication. 
That every one of you should know how to possess his 
vessel in sanctification and honor. Not in the lust of 
concupiscence, even as the Gentiles." Epistle to the 
Romans, chap, xiii., " Not in chambering and wanton- 
ness." " Walk not," says he, " as other Gentiles walk, 
who being past feeling, have given themselves over to 
lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greedi- 
ness." — Ephesians, iv. 1 Corin. vi., " Know ye not that 
your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then 
take the members of Christ, and make them the mem- 
bers of an harlot? God forbid." 1 Corinthians, iii., 
" Know you not that your body is the temple of the 
Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and 
ye are not your own." And in the same to the Corin- 
thians, chap, iii., "If any man defile the temple of God, 
him shall God destroy, for the temple of God is holy, 
which temple ye are." Doubtless many of these pass- 
ages refer primarly to excesses with women, but they 
all point clearly enough, not so much to the act, as to 
the filthy and polluted state of mind and heart out of 
which originate all the varied forms of Sensuality, not 
excluding Onanism itself, and which, if present in any 
of their disgusting characters, inevitably react upon 



GENERAL DEBILITY, 43 

the mind, rendering it still more corrupt. Even the 
Pagan world of ancient Rome, immersed in sensuality 
almost beyond parallel, if we may credit Martial, held 
the practice of self-pollution in worse than abhorred 
contempt, 

"Hoc nihil esse putes ? Scelus est mini, crede ; sed ingens 
Quantum vix animo, concipis ipse tuo." 

" We, however, have a more sure word of prophecy, 
whereunto, if we take heed, we do well." This ought 
to be a powerful inducement to restrain us, not only 
from the grosser forms of sensuality, but the more ter- 
rific practice of self-pollution ; for God, as the Creator 
of this curiously contrived frame of ours, hath put upon 
it a measure of his own glory, the shadow of divinity. 
Our bodies are declared to be the fitting residence of 
himself; in his power and presence he formed, and by 
that presence, sustains us in being ; wherefore our 
bodies, perishable and mortal though they be, yet par- 
taking of this honor, it is not less our duty, than our 
highest privilege, to retain them m honor. If*the tem- 
ples of heathens were not suffered to be profaned or 
polluted, how much more ought the thoughtless volup- 
tuary to respect himself, if not for his own sake, yet as 
the curiously constructod handiwork of that Being 
who will surely avenge himself by pain and agony, 
inflicted upon the violator of his own laws. We are 
told in the unerring oracles of truth, " Ye are not your 
own, for ye are bought with a price, wherefore glorify 
God in your bodies, and in your spirit, which are His." 



44 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

Paul, speaking of heathens, observes that, " being given 
up to uncleanness, they dishonored their own bodies," 
and, in another place, " It is the will of God that we 
abstain from uncleanness." Indeed the passages of 
Scripture, relating fo the pollutions of the flesh are 
almost numberless. Let individuals examine the Sacred 
Writings for themselves, and they will perceive that no 
other crime is so many times named as Uncleanness ; 
and surely no person can be more accurately designated 
as guilty of this sin than he who is addicted to self-pol- 
lution. 

If we reflect ever so superficially on the ordinary law 
of God's moral government and providence ; if we 
think of the natural end and design of marriage in all 
countries, and the way in which it is evidently intended 
our species should be propagated, reason itself would 
instruct us that to destroy that- end must be very of- 
fensive to our Creator, as well as a great crime against 
society. All forms of sensual excess alike tend to 
destroy sexual power and the production of weakly, 
puny progeny, who are likely to bring no honor or use- 
fulness to the .State. If this be true of excess in general, 
it holds infinitely true of self-pollution, justifying the 
assertion that the crime is in itself monstrous, uunatural, 
filthy, odious, as its consequences are certain and ruin- 
ous for it destroys conjugal affection, perverts natural 
inclination, and tends to extinguish the hopes of pos- 
terity. 

The effects of this practice upon the body are not less 
remarkable than the strange debility which clouds the 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 45 

mind. And be it observed, there is no act which so 
soon becomes habitual. In the first employment of 
tobacco and spirits, time is usually required to render 
them agreeable ; but the first essay of self-pollution is 
ushered in with a new, wild and intoxicating delight. 
Its very secrecy aids the infatuation. The stream once 
crossed, the Rubicon once passed, all may be done effec- 
tually that is evil for time and for eternity. To re- 
trace that step — to efface it as a blot from memory 
and conscience is impossible ; and so often that iuward 
monitor becomes seared, deadened, hardened, till its 
feeble voice, from oft-repeated criminality, becomes 
drowned in the mad and urgently loud calls of unnatu- 
ral passion ; and thus it is that the mind now depraved, 
becomes not the reasoning governor, but the goad, the 
stimulus to acts, which sooner or later, will abolish and 
destroy every vestige of intellect. The uncleanness 
having obtained the mastery over the heart, it pursues 
its victim with lustful conception at all times, and in all 
places, upon the most serious occasions, and in the very 
acts of religion. 

As the nervous system suffers, the brain becomes the 
subject of disease; melancholy, indifference, disgust, 
misanthropy, pass through their various grades into 
madness, and the startling truth must not be concealed, 
that self-pollution is a frequent cause of insanity. The 
late Dr. Armstrong observed, "The solitary vice of 
Onanism produces effections of the head ; " and in his 
published lectures is detailed a case of " a youth of 17, 
who at the age of 10 was sent to a school where he be- 



46 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

came the subject of this vice ; and from a fine, active 
and clever boy, he became an idiot. His eyes became 
prominent, his pupils largely dilated; he had pains 
in his head and down tbe course of the spine, loss of 
memory, a silly, unmeaning expression of countenance, 
and a tottering gait." The same writer states, " I Ihink 
I should know a person in the street who has addicted 
himself to this vice, by merely walking behind him, 
from his peculiar gait." 

As an illustration of the value and power of observa- 
tion, the above may serve usefully to alarm some poor 
youth, who foolishly imagines that his secret and soul 
destroying infatuation is known only to himself. 

That these oft-repeated acts should really tend to 
insanity, if we had not ample evidence of the fact, it 
would not be unphilosophical to suppose, for the mind, 
continuously directed to this one morbid idea, becomes 
debilitated from the perpetual recurrence of the same 
train of thought ; and such is the sympathy of the gen- 
erative organs, that the physical and moral sensibilities 
are there directed to one common focus, and that which 
ought to be only a casual excitement, becomes exchang- 
ed for a permanent morbid irritability. The purest and 
most ardent love produces physical debility, evidently 
because of the intense occupancy of the mind, How 
much more debilitating must be impure associations, 
connected as they are with vicious practices ? No 
wonder that madness and suicide follow. 

It is on record, that a gentleman in apparent posses- 
sion of every requsite to make life happy, was found 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 47 

with a pistol (the instrument of Lis death) clenched in 
his hand ; none could account for the rash act, and 
doubtless, hut for his own revelation, it would have 
passed away as the mere " temporary insanity" of the 
newspapers. Upon a piece of paper in his own haud- 
writing was discovered the words, " I am impotent and 
unfit to live." Scarcely a day passes that deaths by 
suicide are not recorded, and the laws of this country, 
as well as the verdicts of a coroner's jury, generally 
place a merciful construction upon an act which long 
experience of such cases teaches me, would be better 
explained as arising from the sense of impotence by 
self-pollution. The mental agonies of such an one are 
almost insupportable. What bodily pain can equal 
the agony of the soul, aggravated as it must be by the 
consciousness that to its own base sensualism he owes 
his forlorn and miserable condition ? — a being on whom 
the eye .of beauty beams not with fond and pure affec- 
tion — an outcast even from the paid embraces of a 
mercenary wanton. 

Insanity, then, may be regarded as the sad and not 
unfrequent termination of these cases ; and it must be 
obvious that the same causes which tend to breakdown 
the energies of the general system, will unquestionably 
tend to madness, and this because of the excitability of 
the nervous system, and the absolutely essential pre- 
servation of its powers. The more I see of such cases, 
the more I am convinced that the weakness of intellect, 
and even insanity, which such vice engenders, is often 
the sole and direct cause of suicide. On this subject 



48 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

Br. Armstrong remarks, " I have met with many indi- 
viduals, who have had, they say, a predisposition to 
self-destruction; and I find this especially the case 
where there is united disorder of the stomach, liver, 
bowels and head, which leads to madness. n 

We know that all efforts which require the exertion 
of coutinued imaginative power tend to madness. 
Poets, sculptors, painters, the writers of fiction, are all 
equally susceptible; and this from the exclusive exer- 
cise of the faculty of imagination. 

"Great wits to madness nearly are allied, 
And thin partitions do their bounds divide." 

As to the moping, melancholy lover, his woes are 
rational and natural, and find an easy termination; 
but this solitary sensualist is the victim of the worst, 
most unbridled and tyrannical lust that imagination 
can embody; every fair and virtuous countenance that 
is new to him inspires him with some filthy idea, ex- 
cites and goads him in secrecy to fresh excesses ; in 
silence he conjures up before his diseased fancy, some 
absent object; the nervous system sinks under the 
rapid unnatural whirl ; denied repose, urged on to for- 
bidden effort, tortured by the continual recurrence of 
one single polluted idea ; reason resigns her tottering 
throne, and staring madness, or it may be, muttering 
moping idiocy, usurps her vacant authority. 

How fallen beneath the true nobility of man is the 
wretched wreck of humanity, whose excesses have re- 
duced him to this contemptible condition. Once in 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 49 

the hilarity of youth he rejoiced in the command of 
every faculty ; now a senseless, yet animated mass of 
helplessness, exciting the commiseration of those who 
know not the cause of his ruin ; and visited with the 
bitter scorn of those who in spite of his attempts at con- 
cealment, read his degradation in his every feature. 
Whither may he fly from the plague that is within him, 
the evil that haunts him alike in darkness aud by day ? 
The quiet, refined enjoyments of literature, once his 
delight, now pall upon his morbid taste j if he read at 
all, nothing but the more licentious productions of our 
older dramatists, or the lewd effusions of the reign of 
Charles the Second, prove sufficiently stimulating ; or 
it may be these are exchanged for the mawkish senti- 
mentality, the prurient voluptuousnesss, or concealed 
obscenity of a low circulating library of trashy novels. 
Forced to contemplate the gloomy spectre, the shadow 
of his former self, it is merciful iudeed that loss of 
memory, in some faint degree, procures for him mo- 
ments of repose from that murderous racking thought 
which can dwell alone upon images the most revolting ! 
To such an one what misery arises from the accidental 
perception of domestic enjoyments; he sees a fond 
father hug to his bosom his first-born, and cover its lit- 
tle laughing face with kisses. But for him — let fancy 
complete the picture. 

It deserves to be attentively borne in mind that there 
is no vice which so certainly disturbs the natural cir- 
culation of the blood in the brain, as the baneful habit 
of self-pollution, and independently of the drain upon 



50 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

the system by the frequent emissions of its most im- 
portant secretion, thereby occasioning great debility, 
there is another and collatteral cause of weakness 
arising out of too frequent and unnatural exertions, 
which have a tendency to generate a species of atony, 
a palsied, and enfeebled state of the male organs, ren- 
dering it absolutely useless for coition, Hence, it fre- 
quently occurs that on attempting intercourse, how- 
ever strong the previous excitement, the individual 
finds himself suddenly impotent and powerless, not so 
much from fear, anxiety or transport, but doubtless 
from the absolute weariness and flaccidity of the penis, 
which, from mental causes, had for many hours previ- 
ously maintained a state of throbbing erection. How 
much more strongly must these remarks apply to the 
unnatural state of masturbators, who are liable to an 
imperfect and temporary erection, even from the utter- 
ance of a casual word. Such frequent excitement brings 
in its train, not local palsy alone ( generative debility 
of the worst kind), but general weakness of the severest 
character. 

Consumptive diseases are now so prevalent as to 
justify every inquiry relative to their origin. There 
are, doubtless, some affections of the lungs closely re- 
sembling tubercular consumption, which are called into 
existence by the habit of self-pollution. And where 
the scrofulus tendency exists, we have no hesitation in 
affirming that this practice tends to its development. 
Sensual excess, as it is the most certainly fatal, so it 
is a most fertile cause of those diseases of the chest, 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 51 

which threaten so many in early life. Nothing can, 
therefore, be more irrational than the hope or expecta- 
tion that the treatment of such diseases will be suc- 
cessful where, as in too many instances, the concealed 
cause (viz., self-pollution) has been overlooked and un- 
co nfessed. 

Every person has his or her weak point, not merely 
in mind, but in body ; but many persons from accidental 
causes (of which this vice is one), call into activity the 
seeds of disease, which would otherwise have lain dor- 
mant; and, as the result of this the early marks of 
some diseases of the chest may be noticed : breathless- 
ness on the slightest exertion, irregular sleep, difficulty 
in falling asleep at night ; together with these symp- 
toms, there is drowsiness after rising ; languor, lassi- 
tude, and other signs of debility ; fever is often percep- 
tible, chiefly in the evening. There is loss of appetite, 
stomach is weak and irregular, and as the food becomes 
less perfectly digested, a manifest wasting of the mus- 
cular system follows. Paleness of the countenance ; a 
tumid belly, with a swollen condition of the legs ; irreg- 
ularity of the bowels ; frequent changes in the character 
and appearance of the evacuations, are the premonitory 
symptoms of consumptive diseases. Presently, cough 
becomes troublesome ; at first, noticeable upon going to 
bed or rising ; but afterwards through the day. As the 
disease advances, expectoration, first of a mucous, then 
of a purulent character ensues ; and, before death, purg- 
ing and profuse night sweats leave no doubt as to the 
real nature of the disease. Early in the history of these 



52 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

cases, after fever has begun to flush the cheek with a 
central redness, the urine becomes highly colored, and 
deposits freely an earthy sediment. In many instances, 
the stomach seems unimpaired : the tongue, however, 
becomes smooth and unnaturally red ; the voice is 
altered, and the eye assumes an unnatural brightness. 

Epileptic and convulsive diseases are freely produced, 
excited and called into action by excesses. The natural 
intercourse of the sexes is bounded by the natural capa- 
bility, but this by none, hence there is excitement 
without power. Apoplexy occurs not unfrequently 
from this engorged and irregular condition of the blood 
vessels of the head, whether arising from Onanism, or 
mere venereal excess ; the latter paroxysm terminates 
itself ; the former, on the contrary, may be goaded on to 
maduess; and if the vessels of the brain be not rup- 
tured, it is that the most dreadful and exhausting de- 
bility remains behind. 

Too great a dissipation of the animal spirits doubt- 
lessly weakens the stomach, destroying the appetite ; 
and as due nourishment no louger takes place, the mo- 
tions of the heart aud arteries become dull and languid. 
If the animal spirits and the seminal liquor be not 
identical, as the ancients supposed, yet this latter fluid 
like the blood, is undoubtedly alive, and vested with a 
vitality more intense, if possible, thau that of the blood 
itself ; so that the loss of semen produces the same re- 
sults as the loss of blood, but in a greater degree. The 
celebrated Hoffman relates that he has witnessed the 
most dreadful accidents result from an undue dissipa* 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 53 

tion of the semen. " After frequent nocturnal pollu- 
tions," says he, "not only the powers are lost, the body 
falls away, and the face turns pale, but moreover the 
memory fails, a cold sensation seizes all the limbs, the 
sight is clouded, and the voice becomes hoarse ; all the 
body languishes by degrees, disturbing dreams prevent 
sleep administering any relief, and pains ensue of the 
keenest description." He elsewhere observes that he 
had seen several examples of people, even after the 
body had attained its full vigor, who had not only 
brought on redness and acute pain in the eyes, but also 
such weakness of vision, that they could neither read 
nor write as formerly. It is recorded that " a young 
man, at the age of fifteen, having practiced masturba- 
tion till he was three-and twenty, was afflicted with 
such a weakness in his head and eyes, that the latter 
were frequently seized with violent spasms. When he 
attempted to read, a kind of stupor occurred ; the pupils 
became diliated and his eyes were exquisitely painful ; 
the lids were heavy and full of tears, and matter gath- 
ered in the corners which were painful. Though he ate 
with pleasure, he was soon reduced to a mere skeleton ; 
and as soon as he had done eating, he was in a kind of 
intoxication." 

The great Boerhaave has delineated these disorders 
with his usual strength and precision. He observes, 
u the loss of too much semen occasions lassitude, and 
renders exercise difficult : it causes convulsions, emacia- 
tions, and pain in the membranes of the brain ; it dead- 
ens the senses, and particularly the sight, gives rise to 



54 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

a dorsal consumption, indolence, and various other dis- 
orders which are connected with these. I have seen a 
patient," he says, -■' whose disorder began by lassitude, 
and a weakness in all parts of the body, particularly 
towards the loins ; it was attended with an involuntary 
motion of the tendons, periodical spasms and bodily de- 
cay, insomuch as to destroy the whole corporeal frame; 
he felt a pain in the membranes of the brain, a pain 
which patients call a dry burning heat which inces- 
santly burns internally the most noble parts." Again, 
" I have also seen a young man affected with dorsal con- 
sumption. His person was very agreeable ; he became 
so deformed before his death, that the fleshy substance 
which appears above the spinal processes of the loins 
was entirely wasted. The brain itself appeared to be 
consumed ; such patients, in fact, become insensible. 
They become so rigid, that I never perceived so great a 
want of motion in the body, produced by any other 
cause." 

Let not the intensely purient, yet seemingly modest 
victim of secret pollution, lay the flatteriug Unction to 
his soul that from the eye of his fellow-mortals he can 
conceal his unmanly practices. It is written upon his 
forehead— the physiognomy— that faithful mirror of the 
soul and body gives clear indication of the internal dis- 
order. The complexion and plumpness which jointly 
confer a youthful look, and which is the sole substitute 
of beauty ; for without this, even beauty produces no 
other effect than cold admiration ; this complexion and 
plumpness are the first things that disappear ; a lean- 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 55 

ness succeeds, the skin becomes rough, often of a leaden 
tinge ; the eyes lose their brilliancy, and by their lan- 
guor express that of the whole frame ; the lips lose 
their vermillion hue, the teeth their whiteness, the hair 
falls off, and it is no uncommon thing for the whole 
body to become bent and distorted. 

The observations of the ancients are in accordance 
with those of modern writers. Hippocrates has de- 
scribed the ills occasioned by self- abuse, under the title 
of Tabes Dorsalis. " This disorder arises from the spinal 
marrow, and those who are given to unnatural enjoy- 
ments are afflicted with it. They have no fever, and 
though they eat well, they fall away and become con- 
sumptive. They feel as if a sting or stitch descended 
from the head along the spinal marrow. Every time 
they go to stool, or have occasion to make water, they 
shed a great quantity of the seminal liquor ; they are 
incapable of procreation ; and they frequently dream 
of the act of coition. Walking, particularly in rugged 
paths, puts them out of breath, and weakens them, 
occasioning a heaviness in the head, and noise in the 
ears, which are succeeded by a violent fever (lypiria), 
that terminates their days." And further, "that it is 
caused by the wasting of the marrow of the back bone 
in an unnatural way ;" meaning doubtlessly the sperm, 
or seminal liquor. "The patient," says he, "is free 
from fever, yet feels a kind of burning heat on some in- 
ternal part } sometimes eats and digests well ; and if 
you ask him with respect to his state, he tells you he 
feels a cold running stream from the superior " or upper 



66 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

" part of his body into the spine of his back, and when 
he discharges his urine or his excrement, there is some- 
times an evacuation of liquid semen. He is generally 
short-breathed, feels languid after rising In the morn- 
ing, with weakness about his loins, especially after 
much exercise, and his sleep does not afford him the 
wished-for refreshment. An intermitting dimness 01 
the sight sometimes attacks him, his memory fails, and 
his spirits becomes dejected. i i This man," he continues, 
" will be incapable of propagating his species, unless 
the healing art afford him relief." He further observes, 
"that when this distemper continues for a length of 
time, it assumes various appearances in the constitu- 
tion, and makes other stages under different characters ; 
if not rightly understood it may end in an atrophy, or 
nervous consumption ; or perhaps in phthisis, or con- 
sumption of the lungs, where the healing art but too 
often proves unavailing." There can be nothing more 
dreadful than the picture which Aetius has left us of 
the evils produced by too great a discharge of the 
semen. " Young people have the appearance of old age. 
They become pale, effeminate, benumbed, lazy, base, 
stupid, and even imbecile ; their bodies become bent, 
their legs are no longer able to carry them. They have 
an utter distaste for everything, are totally incapaci- 
tated, and become paralytic. The stomach is disordered, 
all the body weakened; paleness, bodily decay, and 
emaciations succeed, and the eyes sink into the head." 
In another place he includes amorous pleasures among 
the causes which produce the palsy. 



GENERAL DEBILITY, 57 

Galen has observed, that " the same causes occasion 
disorders of the brain and nerves, and destroy the 
powers of the genital system ;" and in another passage 
he relates the case of a man who, not being quite cured 
of a violent disorder, died the same night he attempted 
the act of coition. 

Pliny informs us of two individuals who died while 
attempting to force the powers of nature in the sexual 
act. These testimonies of the ancient physicians are 
confirmed by innumerable modern writers. 

Sanctorious observes, " this weakens the stomach, 
destroys digestion, obstructs that insensible perspira- 
tion, the irregularity of which produces the most fatal 
consequences ; occasions the liver and reins (kidneys) 
to be overheated, gives a disposition for the formation 
of stone in the bladder, diminishes the natural heat and 
usually occasions the loss of, or at least weakens the 
sight." 

Lommius, in his commentaries on Celsus, supports 
the testimony of his author thus : " frequent emissions 
of the seed, relax, dry up, weaken, enervate, and pro- 
duce a crowd of evils. Apoplexy, lethargy, epilepsy* 
fainting, loss of sight, tremors, palsy, spasms, and every 
species of the most racking gout." 

Tulpius writes — " The spinal marrow does not only 
waste, but the body and mind both equally languish, 
and the man perishes a miserable victim." 

" Nothing," says De Louvain, " weakens the stomach, 
and abridges life so soon." 

Blanchard has been an eye-witness to gonorrhoea pro- 



58 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

dnced by self-pollution, to consumption and dropsy 
flowing from tie same source ; and in the memoirs of 
curious naturalists we find mention made of a person 
losing his sight from similar causes, thus demonstrating 
the close connection and sympathy existing between 
the testicles and the rest of the body, particularly the 
eyes. 

Numerous other writers might be quoted, and in- 
stances adduced, in evidence of the injurious effects of 
this practice, and we cannot fail to perceive the accuracy 
of Galen in remarking, " this humor is nothing less 
than the most subtle of all others ; it has veins and 
nerves which convey it from all parts of the body to the 
genitals. When a person loses his seed, he loses at the 
same time the vital spirit, so that it is not astonishing 
that too frequent coition should enervate, because the 
body is thereby deprived of the purest of its humors.^' 
And Pythagoras observes, that it is " the flower of the 
blood;" a figurative expression, but one which accu- 
rately designates its noble office ; in a word, it appears 
that the semen is the most important and elaborate of 
the animal fluids, the dissipation whereof leaves the 
other humors weak and vapid. 

We need no better proof of the importance of the 
seminal fluid, than the results arising from its too fre- 
quent and unnatural disharge ; as arranged by the elo- 
quent Hoffman. 

I. " Involuntary nocturnal emissions ; pains in the 
back and often in the head ; weakness of the memory 
and sight; and a mucous discharge from the urethra 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 59 

especially after straining at a discharge of the excre- 
ments ; an aching pain, rolling, and a pendulous condi- 
tion of the testicles. The testicles being the secretory 
organs of the genital fluid, are furnished with arte- 
ries, veins, lymphatics, and nerves, like other glands, 
and are suspended by the crem aster muscle. When, 
therefore, from any cause the texture is weakened, a 
pain will be felt, and this is increased by their hanging 
down, caused by that general relaxation of fibres that 
effects the whole body, and the cremaster muscle in 
particular. 

II. " All the intellectual faculties are weakened ; 
loss of memory ensues, the ideas are clouded ; the pa- 
tients sometimes fall into slight madness ; they have 
an incessant irksome uneasiness, continual anguish, 
and so keen a remorse of conscience that they frequently 
shed tears, They are subject to vertigo] all their 
senses, but particularly their sight and hearing, are 
weakened ; their sleep, if they can obtain any, is dis- 
turbed with frightful dreams. 

III. " The powers of their body decay ; the growth 
of such as abandon themselves to these abominable 
practices, before it is accomplished, is greatly perverted. 
Some cannot sleep at all, others are in a perpetual 
state of drowsiness. They are affected with hypochon- 
driac or hysterical complaints, and are overcome with 
the accidents that accompany tbose grievous disorders 
— melancholy, sighing, tears, palpitation, suffocations 
and faintings. Some emit a calcareous saliva ; coughs, 



60 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

slow fevers, and consumptions, are chastisements which 
others meet with in their own crimes. 

IV. " The most acute pains form another subject of 
pat ients' complaints ; some are thus affected in their 
heads, others in their breasts, stomach and intestines, 
others have external rheumatic pains ; aching numb- 
ness in all parts of the body, when they are slightly 
pressed. 

V. "Pimples do not only appear in the face (this is 
one of the most common symptoms), but even suppu- 
rating blisters upon the nose, chest and thighs ; and 
painful itchings in the same parts. One patient com- 
plained even of fleshy excrescences upon his forehead. 
All those symptoms show to what an impure condition 
the blood is reduced. 

VI. "The organs of generation also participate in 
that misery of wliich they are the primary cause. 
Many are incapable of erection; others discharge their 
seminal liquor upon the slightest titillation and the 
most feeble erection, or the efforts they make when at 
stool. Many are affected with a constant discharge, 
resembling foetid matter or mucus, which entirely de- 
stroys their powers. Others are tormented with pain- 
ful priapisms, dysuria, stranguaries, heat of -urine, 
and difficulty in passing it, which greatly torments 
them. Some have painful tumors upon their testicles, 
penis, bladder, and spermatic cord. In a word, either 



GENERA L DEBILITY. 61 

the impracticability of coition, or a deprivation of the 
genital liquor renders every one imbecile and impotent 
who has for any length of time given way to this 
crime. 

VII. " The functions of the intestines are some- 
times quite disordered ; and some patients complain 
of stubborn constipations; and others of the hemorr- 
hoids (piles), or of the running of a foetid matter from 
the fundament and diarrhcea." 

Another writer thus describes the evils arising from 
masturbation : " The muscles of the youth become soft, 
he is indolent, his body becomes decrepid, his gait 
sluggish, and he is scarcely able to support himself. 
Digestion becomes enfeebled, and the breath offensive, 
the intestines inactive, the excrements hardened in the 
lower bowel, producing additional irritation of the 
seminal vessels in its vicinity. The circulation being 
no longer free, the youth sighs often, the complexion is 
livid, and the skin assumes an unhealthy hue. The 
angles of the mouth become sharp and lengthened, the 
nose reddened at its extremity ; the sunken, glazed 
eyes deprived of all brilliancy, and encircled by a livid, 
lilac, or purple zone, are cast down; no look remains 
°f g a y e ty — the very aspect is forbidding, and criminal. 
General sensibility becomes excessive, producing tears 
without a cause ; perception is weakened, and memory 
almost destroyed. Distraction, or absence of mind, 
renders the judgment unlit for any operation. The 
imagination gives birth only to phantasies and fears, 



62 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

without grounds ; the slightest allusion to the domina- 
ting passion produces motion of the muscles of the 
face, irregular spasms, the flush of shame, or a state of 
despair. The desires become capricious, or envy ran- 
kles in the mind ; perhaps there ensues a total disgust. 
The wretched being finishes by shunning the face of 
men, and dreading the observation of women. His 
character is entirely corrupted, or his mind stupefied. 
Involuntary loss of the reproductive liquid takes place 
irregularly during the hours of sleep, as well as on any 
attempt to evacuate the bowels, and there ensues a 
total exhaustion." In such patients there is an extreme 
susceptibility to external impressions, as (e. g.) those 
arising from variations of temperature, moistness or 
dryness of the atmosphere. The mind becomes con- 
scious of those trifling changes of weather which men 
of business, happy in their vocation, regard not. The 
irritable condition of the mucous membranes of the 
genital organs is propa gated, by sympathy, to the eye- 
lids and nostrils ; these become weak, red, and watery, 
and are susceptible of colds from very slight causes — 
so, at night, the glare of a light becomes offensive and 
painful to the eyelids ; and even in the day a more 
frequent winking and discharge of tears occur, if 
there be the slightest wind ; besides irregular flying 
pains, often mistaken for common rheumatic affec- 
tions. 

Qne of the effects of self-pollution is the actual re- 
duction in bulk of the male organ ; and what is worse, 
its power of erection becomes correspondingly destroy- 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 63 

ed. If we reflect upon the difference between mastur- 
bation and the natural act, we shall not wonder at 
this. Such an one, if the seed vessels are not sufficient- 
ly distended with the fluid that excites erection, is 
able by unnatural friction, to produce a momentary 
discharge when nature refuses the necessary firmness 
for coition. In this way, a host of evils is engendered. 
The testicles are called upon suddenly and violently to 
secrete a thin, effete, unprolific fluid, and the nerves of 
the penis are rendered susceptible of an agreeable titil- 
lation without that natural adjunct, firm erection; 
hence when votary of self-pollution attempts inter- 
course, there is an absence of the requisite rigidity to 
effect penetration ; or if he partially succeed, a prema- 
ture emission takes place, almost or altogether unat- 
tended by the slightest sensation of pleasure. 

Among the minor evils, we must not omit those erup- 
tive diseases, chiefly of the face, frequently observable 
among young persons, and often assignable to improper 
habits. 

From time immemorial, the popular belief has been 
that the undue loss of semen from masturbation, or 
sexual excess, has a tendency to destroy the growth of 
the hair, and to produce baldness. According to Hudi- 
bras, 

11 TVant of virility-is averred 
To be the cause of want of beard." 

Nor is this opinion without some foundation in truth. 
Its presence in profusion is usually an index of sexual 



64 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

power, and when, from excess, that energy falters, na- 
ture, as if for the purpose of economizing her scanty 
resources, casts off the comparatively unimportant ap- 
pendage ; the hair 'becomes white from defective nutri- 
tion, or in middle life the head assumes the baldness, 
though not the venerable diguity of age. The absence 
of hair upon the cheeks and chin is frequently associa- 
ted with solitary practices ; a beardless chin and an 
effeminate voice are the aversion of females, as well as 
the object of their ridicule, and they are generally 
pretty good judges that way. 

All the ills occasioned by excesses with women, more 
quickly follow in youth the abominable practice of 
self-pollution, and which it would be difficult to paint 
in colors so glaring as they merit ; a practice to which 
youth devote themselves, without knowing the enor- 
mity of the crime, and all the ills that are its physical 
consequences. The soul is sensible of all bodily disor- 
ders, but particularly of those which arise from this 
cause. The most profound melancholy, indifference, 
even aversion for all pleasures ; the impossibility of 
sharing in the conversation of company, wherein they 
are always absent ; the thought of their own unhappi- 
ness ; the despair which arises from considering them- 
selves the architects of their own misery, and the ne- 
cessity of renouncing the felicities of marriage, are the 
fluctuating ideas which compel these miserable objects 
to sequester themselves from the world; and happy 
are those who do not put the finishing hand to their 
existence. 



GENERAL DEBILITY, 65 

That masturbation should be so much more deadly 
and destructive than even excessive enjoyment with 
women, is explained by the fact that the latter has its 
limits of capability, whereas the former has none. 

Scirrhosity, or a hard, enlarged, incipient, cancerous 
condition of the prostate gland, is not unfrequent 
among men in advanced life, particularly those who 
have imprudently produced excitement of the parts by 
long toying with women, or by Onanism. Such then, 
and so sad, are the consequences of those unnatural 
sensual enjoyments altogether the reverse of that trans- 
porting emotion incidental to the caresses of a pure and 
virtuous affection, which, in some measure counter- 
balances the luxurious fatigue consequent upon ra- 
tional and temperate indulgence. To this delicate sus- 
ceptibility the miserable victim of solitary vice is a 
stranger. The warm and passionate kiss, the unutter- 
able and thrilling embrace that only lovers can feel, 
lives but in his diseased fancy ; for it cannot be ques- 
tioned that nature allots more joy to those gratifica- 
tions, procured in her proper channels, than in those 
which are repugnant to our natural organization. 
The joy which only the heart can appreciate (and 
which must be carefully distinguished from the volup- 
tuousness purely sensual, which even a prostitute may 
inspire), animates the circulation, aids digestion, ac- 
celerates all the functions, restores strength, and 
supports it. This it is that gives to marriage that 
sacred home-felt sweetness which love inspires and 
God looks down upon approvingly. The debauchee, 



66 GENERAL DEBILITY. 

scoffing at that he can never know, affects to despise 
marriage, because, owing to the degradation of his 
soul, there is a purity, and consequently an intensity in 
such interchange of affection he can never realize. 

Unfortunately, masturbation is not confined to the 
male sex. Deeply must it be deplored that the prac- 
tice of vicious indulgence has found its way to the 
chamber of unmarried girls; and the great, great re- 
sponsibility of parents and guardians, in reference to 
the hidden character of those to whom is entrusted, 
not merely the physical, but the moral and intellectual 
companionship of artless youth, can hardly be ade- 
quately estimated. Surprising artfulness and obsti- 
nacy are employed by young people in maintaining 
secrecy respecting crimes of this description. Let the 
proud father of the clever girl, whose early spirit he is 
the first to appreciate, watch closely the associations 
she may form, even with those of her own sex ; and 
most especially the books that she reads when no eye 
is near. 

The same influences that entail early decreptitude 
upon boys, are in operation among girls to an extent 
which can only be believed by those whose peculiar 
province it is to conduct such inquiries ; and the same 
causes which occasion impotency in one sex, are pro- 
ductive of barrenness in the other, besides laying the 
foundation of those tedious discharges, and other 
serious ailments which undermine the constitution 
and embitter the existence of so many of our fair sis- 
ters. 



GENERAL DEBILITY. 67 

There are results common to both sexes ; but among 
females addicted to solitary sexual pollution, one of 
the first consequences is the formation of an irritable 
nervous, billious, hysterical constitution ; and owing 
to the morbid accumulation of excitability in the geni- 
tals, there is a copious discharge of mucous fluid, gen- 
erally only an augmentation of the natural secretion, 
but which, when excessive, is termed, in the closet- 
vocabulary of women, " the whites." 

To bring these observations to a close ; it is impossi- 
ble to regard the gloomy consequences of self-pollution 
otherwise than as a direct retributive infliction from the 
hand of that Being, whose marvelous handiwork, in 
the construction of the human frame, led one of old to 
exclaim, " I am fearfully and wonderfully made." Let, 
therefore, self-respect and adoration of the Great Arti- 
ficer restrain the thoughtless, or it may be that drivel- 
ing, helpless, premature dotage may (like the mark set 
upon Cain) place them in a position past all hope or 
remedy. 



CHAPTER III. 

SPERMATORRHOEA, IMPOTENCY, STERILITY, ETC. 



The genital fluid being retained (for subsequent ex- 
cretion) in the vesicular receptacles, and through the 
removal by absorption of its watery particles becoming 
more concentrated, acrimonious, and powerful, gives 
rise spontaneously, and at certain intervals, according 
to the health and constitutional stamina of the indi- 
vidual, to the natural desire for sexual intercourse. 
These preliminary remaiks are essential to a national 
comprehension of that morbid habit of parts from which 
originates the disease or infirmity, called in professioal 
parlance, " Spermatorrhoea." 

The act of evacuation becomes pernicious in propor- 
tion as it is unnecessary, and not demanded by the 
wants of the living system ; hence it is, that the youth 
who is devoted to unnatural excess, inflicts such retrib- 
utive vengeance upon himself; he has the power of ex- 
citing these organs, when, from previous evacuation, 
they contain nothing sufficiently stimulating to cause 
erection, and maintain requisite condition for congress ) 



SPERMATORRHOEA. 69 

in this way he is able to perpetrate a great amount of 
mischief, and the irritated vessels pour out a thin mu- 
cous discharge, possessed of no vivifying power. From 
this very irritation, the vesicula3 seminales or recepta- 
cles above alluded to ; become incapacited for retaining 
the semen as it is conveyed thither from the testicles ; 
and should this miserable fraction of humanity marry, 
a mere thin gleety drain is all he can furnish to impreg- 
nate, it may be, a warm, vigorous and healthily organ- 
ized woman. The solitary creatures who have reduced 
themselves to this deplorable state of helplessness, have 
drained the system, by past excess, of that which the 
seminal vessels are not, naturally, too irritable to re- 
tain, but which, if now secreted of a healthy character, 
is expelled without effort, or the excitement inseparable 
from the generative act. Here, then, is indicated one 
among the many forms of seminal weakness. Irrita- 
bility is its leading feature, and among the more la- 
mentable diseases to which the human body is liable, 
there are none requiring a greater degree of patience, 
discrimination and tact on the part of the medical man, 
and fortitude on the part of the patient, than this con- 
dition of the generative apparatus. 

A stain upon the linen, and a strange feeling of weari- 
ness, are the first things that arrest attention ; with this 
there is often an absence of that natural erection, which 
generally occurs in the morning, after first waking from 
the supine position, so that though each repetition of 
the weakness is noticeable in the early stages of this vi- 
cious perversity of parts, after a time, as the fluid 



70 SPERMATORRHOEA.. 

escapes unconsciously, its effects upon constitutional 
power are the only signs, yet are they fearful tokens of 
its debilitating presence. 

In many instances the sleep is not broken, and it is 
sometimes difficult to ascertain how often the evacua- 
tion occurs, the consequences of the loss are however 
sufficiently evident, demanding the most prompt and 
energetic measures to avert the impending mischief. 
Nocturnal emissions, though more frequently attributa- 
ble to the practice of self-pollution, and sexual excesses, 
may arise from diseased testicle, or prostate gland. 
When complicated with the latter, the discharge of 
semen is mixed with the natual secretion of the prostate, 
and the combined fluids stain the linen of a dingy yel- 
lowish hue, closely resembling that resulting from the 
discharge in gonorrhoea (common clap) and the gleety 
discharge which accompanies its chronic stages. Lodg- 
ments of hardened feculent matter in the large intes- 
tines, sometimes act as a mechauical irritant, and give 
rise to diurnal as well as nocturnal evacuations of this 
highly important fluid, and hence the complaint may be 
said to possess three different stages, showing them- 
selves — 

1st. By nocturnal emissions. 

2d. By diurnal losses (called Spermatorrhoea). 

3d. By impotency, or loss of manhood, partial or 
complete. 

All the three stages are accompanied by nervousness, 
more or less; impaired nutrition ; lassitude ; weakness 
of the limbs and back ; indisposition and incapacity for 



SPERMATORRHOEA. 71 

study or labor, dullness of apprehension, deficient 
power of attention, loss of memory, aversion to society, 
love of solitude, timidity, self-distrust, dizziness, head- 
ache, pains in the sides, back and limbs, affection of the 
eyes, pimples on the face, and in extreme cases, even 
by idiocy and insanity in their most intractable forms. 
It is generally attended with loose and dangling testi- 
cles, coldness of the glans penis, unfrequent weak and 
languid erections of comparatively short duration. The 
progress from one stage to the other, is often so gradual, 
as to be scarcely perceptible ; the seminal losses being 
unsuspected, and as it was so hidden from view, that 
only a well experienced eye is able to trace them. In 
the first place, the testicles have, through tlie practice of 
Onanism, or rather excesses, acquired such a morbid 
sensitiveness, that on the slightest local irritation, they 
pat in action their secretive powers, thus constituting 
an infirmity which might not inaptly be termed a con- 
sumption of those glands, which if unimpaired by chronic 
disease, or pernicious practices, are fitted to supply and 
expend, at proper and chaste intervals, that important 
secretion during the most active years of a long life. 
But if manhood be anticipated ; if the secretion and ex- 
pulsion of semen be premature or unnaturally frequent, 
if it be excited artificially, nocturnal emissions may 
occur, as the consequence of the practice, but seminal 
or generative debility most certainly will. 

These nocturnal emissions then cannot so easily be 
overlooked, but diurnal emissions, or the second stage, 
frequently altogether escape the attention of the patient, 



72 SPERMATORRHEA. 

till he finds himself in the third stage, and partially or 
wholly incompetent to the performance of sexual inter- 
course. 

The emissions, at first attended by erections and pleas- 
urable sensations during sleep, in time begin to occur 
without either erection or sensation, and ultimately 
take place during the day, whenever the bowels are 
moved, or the urine is passed, or during the slightest 
excitement in female society. In extreme cases there is 
an almost constant discharge, or oozing of semen, and a 
complete absence of the power of retention. Persons 
who were formerly annoyed by frequent noctural emis- 
sions, and are now not so much troubled in this way, are 
often perplexed as to the cause of their continued ner- 
vousness, incapacity for study or business, depression of 
spirits, aversion to society, etc., little suspecting, that at 
the very time they were congratulating themselves on 
their release from their former annoyance, they were 
enduring one of still more importance, and that the 
loss of semen, which was formerly only occasional, in 
nocturnal emissions, is now almost constant, it being 
carried off with the urine, at each evacuation of the 
bladder. This is easily explained. The semen passes 
from the testes (along the ducts, called the vasa defer- 
entia, opening into the urethra) ; these ducts, in a 
healthy state possess sufficient power of retention, but 
when weakened from abuse, they become relaxed, and 
as it were dilated, allowing the semen to escape invol- 
untarily on the slightest excitement. In this irritable 
: condition, they are liable to be acted upon by the urine 



SPERMATORRHEA. 73 

as it passes over their sensitive outlets ; and this irri- 
tation extending to the bladder, the urine is in conse- 
quence voided frequently, and nearly always mixed 
with semen. It is only since the important aid to 
diagnosis rendered by the marvelous powers of the mi- 
croscope, that this very important fact has been made 
out, prior to which numbers have suffered all the con- 
sequences of debility, without a suspicion of the actual 
cause. It is no uncommon circumstance for patients to 
remark that their urine is thick and ropy, particularly 
the last few drops. This, in some instances, arises from 
inflammation of the bladder ; but in most cases, this 
condition is caused by the semen it contains. Many 
married men, even of chaste and temperate habits, are 
thus affected, without even suspecting it, simply be- 
cause they are unacquainted with the existence of such 
a hidden source of weakness ; and on their attention be- 
ing drawn to the subject, they can but regret the want 
of previous information as to their increasing and ap- 
parently uncontrollable debility. In married people 
this frequently arises where the bounds of moderation 
have been overstepped; and there is no doubt that this 
hitherto undetected drain upon the system, has been 
the cause of incalculable misery to thousands. 

Many men, about the age of forty, who have lived 
freely, are not unfrequently greatly altered in their 
power of sexual intercourse. They may, indeed, in 
general health, be stout and hearty, and for severa 1 
years not very sensible of diminution in this respect 
but the frequency of their inclination for such dutie,. 



74 SPERMATORRHEA. 



gradually becomes less, a symptom at all times portent- 
ous of approaching impotence ; for the inclination ceas- 
ing, the power soon follows. In others about the same 
time of life, the physical power ceases first, and the in- 
clination continuing often for years, their amusements 
become but the merest pantomines of amorous indul- 
gence ! Such individuals otherwise in tolerable health, 
are recoverable. From actual observation, we have 
generally found that these different conditions owe 
their origin, and even their immediate existence to 
nearly the same causes, and may in almost every in- 
stance, be removed by nearly similar treatment. 

The term impotence is applied to this inability or in- 
capacity on the part of the male to the performance of 
the sexual act ; and it is requisite that for all practical 
purposes, we do not confound this state of the genera- 
tive system with sterility, since a man who is sterile, or 
a woman who is absolutely barren, may yet be perfectly 
capable of the act of coition ; in other words, sterility 
is an inability for propagation : impotence an inabili ty 
for copulation, whether occuring in either sex, whether 
natural or acquired, whether resulting from disease or 
malformation. 

The desire to perpetuate our species is one of the most 
intense and irresistible passions with which we are en- 
dowed ; it is a part of our existence, it is a consequence, 
a feeling as natural as hunger and thirst. The time at 
which this desire commences is Puberty, the most critical 
period in the life of man ; at this epoch our frames are 
perfected, the secretions necessary for the formation 



SPERMATORRHOEA. 75 

and growth of our bodies have, to a great extent, 
performed their office, and a total change, mental 
as well as corporeal, takes place. The hoy sud- 
denly throws off the puerile character, his whole ap- 
pearance undergoes a change — his countenance is illu- 
minated with intellect and decision, his voice assumes 
a rough and manly tone, his cheeks and lips become 
shaded with a delicate down, the precursor of the dis- 
tinctive beard ; his limbs become firm, his step erect 
and vigorous, and he no longer delights in those occu- 
pations and amusements which before afforded him 
gratification. 

In the female the characteristic changes are equally 
marked, and, if possible, the body undergoes still 
greater alterations ; the system becomes fully develop- 
ed — the bust enlarged, the eyes sparkle with vividness 
and expression, indicative of soul and feeling ; the 
periodical indisposition peculiar to her sex commences, 
girlish playfulness is exchanged for that graceful bash- 
fulness and retiring modesty which are so pleasing in 
girls of this age, her mind is occupied with ideas pure, 
but strange and absorbing ; in a word she is a woman, 
" fairest of creation, last and best of all God's works." 

Puberty is the most critical period of life. The 
mind rushes into a new world — new thoughts, new 
feelings engage the attention, and the foundation of 
future character and happiness is now in the balance. 
The body participates in the change ; the buds of in- 
herent or acquired disease are now matured or crushed, 
and the prospect of continued Health and strength will 



76 SPERMATORRHOEA. 

be influenced, in a considerable degree, by the conduct 
of life at this era. How important, then, that the 
opening mind and the expanding reason of youth 
should comprehend the pinnacle upon which it is now 
poised ! Surrounded by all the temptations and in- 
ducements to err, which on every side allure the inex- 
perience and indecision of boyhood, it cannot occasion 
surprise that 

" Some begin life too soon — like sailors thrown 
Upon a shore where common things look strange." 

Dear is the price hereafter to be paid for this precocity ; 
imprudence or excess may be indulged in with appa- 
rent impunifcy, while strength and youth have the power 
to neutralize the immediate effects of folly ; but when 
these are exhausted, and disease turns the balance, rapid 
is the onslaught, and it may happen, decisive the vic- 
tory. 

As this work is intended to be practical we have no 
wish, nor intention, to gratify prurient curiosity with 
any curious detail, but at once plunge in medias res, 
and ask— Is there a divinity, law or medical student, 
who does not aspire to a mitre, the woolsack, or a 
chair I Is there a mercantile drudge who does not as- 
pire to be at the head of a firm ? These are partial 
hopes, to be obtained only by few. Is there one man 
—however exalted, however humble— who does not 
look forward to the possession of a home, a wife, chil- 
dren, as the goal of his endeavors, his toils, his cares ? 
This is but a general desire, within the reach of all. 



SPERMATORRHOEA. - 77 

Home I wife ! children ! are the talismanic words which 
have guided nieii to the noblest actions — to the great- 
est efforts of genius and exertion. All worldly happi- 
ness is centered in these blessings, for what can excel 
the domestic comforts of his own fireside ? 

" All who joy would win 



Must share it. Happiness was born a twin." 

We need not enlarge on this topic. Every man's 
heart must acknowledge its truth ; and were we to 
quote from the immortal Milton, even to the veriest 
tyro of the Poet's Corner of a country newspaper, we 
could not improve the impression which must be spon- 
taneous in the breasts of all. But decidedly, although 
Lust is not of necessity the constant attendant on 
Love ; still " Love brooks not a degraded throne ; " 
and that, as well to fulfill the Divine command, " In- 
crease and multiply," as to fulfill the very purpose of 
our existence by continuing 

" The vigorous race 

Of uudiseased mankind, " 

it is imperative to preserve in the perfection of their 
power those organs, and the functions of those organs 
upon which our obedience to this command depends. 

Amongst the causes which impair and destroy this 
necessary attribute of man, it has been shown that self- 
pollution unfortunately takes the first place ; and al- 
though the actual effects of this debasing practice may 
not have evinced themselves by any sensible derange^ 



78 SPERMATORRHOEA. 

ment of the general health, still the source of the sex- 
ual debility may be no less certain. Impotence from 
this cause arises trom actual want of power ; from pre- 
mature or tardy emission; from the impoverished 
state of the vivifying fluid ; from disproportion in size 
of the organ ; from the absence of desire ; and from 
the universal weakness which affects the whole sys- 
tem. 

Excess in venery is another cause of impotence, and 
is also a most fruitful source of some most serious mal- 
adies not peculiar alone to the male sex. The diseases 
which are cousequent upon this excess are those which 
are dependent on the nervous system ; namely, Paraly- 
sis, Apoplexy, Epilepsy, Diseases of the Organs of 
Vision, particularly Nyctalopia, and those spectres or 
dark spots which float before the eye, called by physi- 
cians Muscat Volitantes. Diseases of the heart are 
greatly aggravated by excess in venereal indulgence. 
Whether the baneful habit of self-pollution, or excess 
with women have engendered this disturbed balance, 
the effect is the same. Sexual power is sure to be de- 
stroyed in the end. On attempting intercourse with 
women, the semen is too quickly discharged ; nocturnal 
emissions sometimes occur, almost too frequently to be 
recounted ; even the sight of a fascinating creature 
is sufficient to arouse the dormant irritability, and 
diurnal losses also take place. With some, erection 
is seldom, or exceedingly weak, and desire is more 
or less extinct. The mind partakes of the prevail- 
ing imbecility ; the man, sensibly alive to his car 



SPERMATORRHOEA. 79 

lainity, is reduced to the condition of a mono- 
maniacal nervous hypochondriac, the seminal fluid 
dribbling away without erections, unconsciously, 
and not as the natural ejaculatory effort of the 
muscles appropriated for its convulsive discharge. No 
man is justified in entering upon the responsibilities of 
marriage, whose condition even approaches distantly to 
this. Before he enters into that most solemn engage- 
ment, it is his bounden duty, as he would avoid the 
most refined cruelty to an innocent yet affectionate 
woman, to ask his conscience well and truly whether 
there be any bar or impediment to that sacred union ; 
and if suspicion be even delicately and tremblingly 
alive ; let him wait until reassured of his partially lost 
powers, that he may with confidence lead his blushing 
bride to the matrimonial altar. If otherwise, the nup- 
tial bed of the helpless unmanly creature, instead of 
creating a secret, yet intensely transporting delight, 
will be converted into a scene of blended mortification, 
disgust, disappointment and suppressed anger. Now it 
is that the fair girl laments, when tears are unavailing ; 
now the cheated bride is made to feel herself the un- 
happy victim, the scapegoat of a long round of past 
sensuality — the sins of former years are made to tell 
upon her devoted head, if not in the communication of 
actual disease, at least in the deprivation of those en- 
joyments which to a certain extent are essential to the 
happiness of wedded life. Anxious for offspring, yet 
baffled from year to year in the feeble embrace of the 
man she has vowed to love and honor ; life, health, and 



80 SPERMATORRHEA.. 

youth, fast wearing away, under a combination of cir- 
cumstances so painful, that language cannot adequately 

describe them. 

The reproductive power may not be entirely de- 
stroyed by that state of generative debility engendered 
by nocturnal emissions, and yet very painful conse- 
quences of another character may unquestionably arise. 
A healthy female may become pregnant from the feeble 
yet exhausting efforts of a man whose constitutional 
power is seriously broken, yet it would be unphilosophi 
cal and unsupported by any analogy drawn from the 
history of the lower animals, to expect that this circum- 
stance would not tell most detrimentally upon the off- 
spring, which will assuredly bear enstamped upon it the 
same physical characteristics as the feebly vital fluids 
from which it originated. As an illustrative of this, it 
has been remarked, from the days of Aristotle, that ille- 
gitimate children are frequently endowed with great 
genius and valor. The circumstance has been ascribed 
to the impetuosity of both parents during their em- 
braces. Hercules, Romulus, Alexander, Themistocles, 
Jugurtha, King Arthur, William the Conquer or, Homer, 
Demosthenes, and many others, are notable instances ; 
and the most ancient families, in almost every kingdom, 
have sprung from the left-handed offspring of princes. 
The worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars, 
bravest spirits in English annals, have been base born. 
Carden, in his "Subtleties," gives a reason: "These 
are more powerful in body and mind, chiefly from the 
vehemence of the sexual act that begat them." Pro- 



SPEltMATORRHCEA. 81 

bably their superior energy may be attributed to the 
strength of parental constitution, which is all for which 
we contend, the weak and delicate not being so likely 
to become the prey of unlawful passions. 

Impotence is more frequently observed in our own 
sex than among women. Temporary impotence in man 
or woman, especially in the former, is often the result of 
mere apprehension, or of some diseased condition with 
which sexual intercourse is for a time incombatible ; 
such, for instance, as for nervous and malignant fevers ; 
while, strange to relate, an opposite effect is sometimes 
produced by other diseases, such as gout and rheuma- 
tism, haemorrhoids, etc., and instances are on record, of 
other diseases producing such a change in the constitu- 
tion, that an impotent man may find himself cured of 
his impotence on their cessation. 

Impotence in the male may arise then from a wide 
diversity of conditions. Incapacity of erection, generally 
referable to self-pollution ; impotence, arising from a 
want of power of retention in the seminal vessels in- 
duced by a morbid susceptibility of those vessels; 
brought,on by a persistence in the same vicious practices , 
impotence, from inability of retention resulting from re- 
pletion of those vessels. Impotence from mental influ- 
ence has also its appropriate management. Exclusive 
of this, the generative infirmity under consideration, 
though occasionally arising from simple disease, is as- 
cribable in by far the greater majority of instances to the 
excess of sensualism, either with women, or more com- 
monly still, from that vile delusive mentally annihilat- 



82 SPERMATORRHOEA. 

ing excess, to which such frequent allusion has been 
made. 

That long continued debauchery, whether with women 
or by masturbation, is among the most common and 
prominent of the causes of impotence, is a fact admitted 
by all systematic writers. Mons. Pinel observes: " The 
impotence caused by the latter excess, reduces youth to 
the nullity of old age, and is too often incurable." 

It is certain that where impotence arises from Onan- 
ism, its severity is far greater than when produced by 
excessive venery. The reason is, that the vital fluid, 
which should have improved the stamina of the system^ 
has been lost without satisfaction ; without that grati- 
fication of the mind which compensates in some meas- 
ure the expenditure of vital energy. All authority favors 
the assertion that moderate legitimate indulgence with 
a beloved object, tends to produce a pleasing hilarity, 
lightness of heart, and aptitude for the ordinary busi- 
ness and enjoyments of life ; and as the best things be- 
come by abuse or excess, the worst and most enervating^ 
it is especially so in the present instance. The man 
who indulges to the utmost his licentious propensities, 
and taxes his failing powers to their last extent ; seek- 
ing for variety as a new stimulus, may certainly find 
therein an excitement sufficient for the occasion, and 
may be able to effect and accomplish more frequent 
repetitions of the sexual act than the sober, quiet, mar- 
ried man, who happy in his choice, is faithful to one 
woman. But the fact must not be withheld, that this 
excess among men of polluted minds is accomplished at 



SPERMATORRHEA. 83 

the expense of a corresponding amount of physical 
energy; such feeling becomes the most dominant ram- 
pant lust, and no passion more strangely wears down 
its victim, strewing in prostrate wreck all the finer and 
and more delicate emotions of the soul. It is a morbid 
craviug which can never be appeased, and its end is not 
only the destruction of all mental quietude, but is the 
utter ruin of the body. Even when physical capability 
is expended, and premature decreptitude approaches, 
powerless desires still torment the victim of ungovern- 
able lust, who can talk only of past enjoyments, but 
whose filthy conversation serves to inflame and seduce 
other and purer minds. The results of such efforts tell 
with tremendous power upon the greedy but hopelessly 
debilitated votary of pleasure. The lawful partner of a 
husband's bed silently affords only that gratification de- 
manded by the sexual organs when fully charged with 
the seminal fluid, and impatient for relief. To a man so 
happily circumstanced the stimulus of variety is un- 
sought, contemned, forbidden, not merely as contrary 
to all laws, divine and human, but as directly opposed 
to the maintenance of his animal organization in health, 
strength and usefulness. Here, then, the natural laws 
of his physical constitution harmonize most admirably 
with the higher sanctions of morality. The actual 
amount of enjoyment realized by the temperate is, in 
the long run, far greater; power is maintained until old 
age, and a vigorous offspring is engendered ; while the 
hasty, violent, and forced gratifications of the sensual- 
ist, though intensely vivid for a brief space, are sue- 



84 SPERMATORRHOEA. 

ceeded by that worst form of helplessness, insatiable 
desire appended to diseased and powerless organs. 

And here, we have a few words for those, who 
although strictly faithfulvftu; $/e marriage bed, are yet 
accustomed systematically to infringe the laws of 
chastity by indulging their animal propensities to ex- 
cess. This also brings its punishment. Since the last 
edition of this work, a somewhat marked case of paral- 
ysis has occurred to me, which I will briefly relate. A 
gentleman from New Orleans had for some time lost (al- 
most entirely) the use of both lower extremities ; not pro- 
gressing very satisfactorily, a physician, whom he con- 
sulted, induced him to undertake a journey, with a view 
of placing himself under our care. He candidly ad- 
mitted at his first interview, that having been exceed- 
ingly happy in his married life, it being his good for- 
tune to possess a most amiable and affectionate wife, 
and being naturally of warm and ardent temperament, 
he had indulged his propensities to great excess ; to 
such a degree was he debilitated, that as well as the 
absence of the power, he then seldom ever experienced 
any sexual desire; and this, in conjunction with his al- 
most childish helplessness, debarring him from active 
exercise of any kind, so preyed upon his spirit, that he 
feared his mind would ultimately fail, and whilst writ- 
ing he expressed an earnest desire to remain under our 
personal care. This gentleman remained in the city 
under our treatment for ten weeks, and then returned 
home, taking with him a further supply of our medi- 
cines. Some weeks afterwards we received from him 



SPERMATORRHOEA. 85 

the following communication, comment on which is un- 
necessary 

" I row, and swim, a^ L xi^b to the astonishment of 
all my neighbors. I also walk much firmer, enjoy my 
food as I have not done for months, and am already like 
another being. Thank God, I am improved in strength 
of body, and in tone of mind, beyond anything I ex- 
pected in the time ; I feel returuiug health coursing 
through my veins ; only sometimes I ask myself if it is 
a dream. It is almost incredible to myself and friends, 
the benefit I have already derived from your treat- 
ment." 

The draining of the seminal fluid, which occurs 
either from excessive venery, or from self-poll ution is 
not equally great in every instance. There are some 
individuals who are not rendered absolutely, but only 
partially impotent. With severe effort they accomplish 
the sexual act occasionally, though probably to the ill- 
disguised indifference, if not disgust of the female. 
Others again, though unprolific, are tolerably compe- 
tent, but at long intervals ; their powers though weak- 
ened, are not altogether destroyed, for with due care, 
and the really steady employment of judicious meas- 
ures, this threatened evil may be averted. Promptitude 
in these cases, is of the first importance, while on the 
other hand, if valuable time be squandered now in 
contending against improper treatment, it is too prob- 
ably lost for ever. In just such cases as these it is that 
the cautious skill of science leaves blundering bungling 



86 SPERMATORRHOEA. 

quackery far behind to pursue her blind injurious 
course. Here the great end and aim of treatment must 
be to excite without irritating ; and to individuals men- 
aced with this evil, I address the friendly warning, on 
no account to tamper and temporize with their infirm- 
ity in the idle hope that all will in time recover itself, 
for sad experience proves the contrary. 

Genital malformation— as amongst the proximate 
causes of Impotence — must not be passed without 
notice. The prepuce may be adhered to the glands, or 
so bound down by the froenum, that without a trifling 
operation, copulation cannot take place. Phymosis aud 
Paraph ymosis may also render an attempt at coition 
excessively painful to the female, and devoid of all 
pleasurable excitement on the part of him who labors 
under the infirmity. The penis may be curtailed of its 
fair proportions, or may have acquired such "lusty 
stature" as to offer another obstacle. Some patients 
have complained of serious inconvenience from an un- 
natural curve of the penis, not the result of disease. 
Then there are disorders of the urinary or genital 
organs referable to inflammation or irritation of those 
structures ; as, for instance, thickening of the bladder, 
disease of the testicles, wasting of the penis, stricture 
with other affections of the organs. There is also a fre- 
quent affection of the prostate gland of a chronic can- 
cerous nature, which forms a barrier to copulation. 
Cases in which the urethra terminated at the base of 
the penis, near the perina3iim, have come under our 
observation ; these, though very distressing, are not ir- 



SPERMATORRHEA. 87 

remediable. The testicle is sometimes malformed, and 
occasionally one or both are wanting. All cases of so- 
called Hermaphrodism, are dependent upon malforma- 
tion. 

It would be possible to go on enumerating causes and 
effects in relation to this subject, almost without end; 
and although such cases may not in every instance be 
amenable to treatment, yet there is much room for in- 
genuity ; and it has occurred not unfrequently, that 
means have been employed to very tangible purposes 
in cases previously regarded as hopeless. The advice, 
the consolation, the comfort to be afforded in all such 
cases are in themselves of no small moment, and as the 
"Medical Adviser" should be the friend, as well as the 
physician of those who seek his aid, such investigations 
may not be found altogether so useless as at first might 
appear. We have been repeatedly consulted on account 
of the absence of offspring, by patients, who were impo- 
tent from one or other of the foregoing causes, and fre- 
quently has it been our happiness to render very essen- 
tial aid towards the realization of this long, ardent, and 
very natural desire. Such cases call for no small degree 
of delicacy, tact, discrimination, caution and sympathy 
— and with these combined, much may often be accom- 
plished by the humane and scientific practitioner. 

Having thus noticed the chief of those causes which 
detract from the happiness and injure the health of man, 
we cannot conclude more appropriately than by quoting 
from Dr. Johnson's admirable tale, Rasselas : " Let us, 
therefore stop, while to stop is in our power ; let us live 



88 SPERMATORRHOEA. 

as men who are sometimes to grow old, and to whom it 
will be the most dreadful of all evils to count their past 
years by follies, and to be reminded of their former 
luxuriance of health, only by the maladies which riot 
has produced." 

Fortunately, the numerous records in our possession 
of cases which ( though in some instances very serious) 
have been treated to a favorable termination, prove that 
the recovery of the powers of manhood is not (under 
judicious management) so utterly hopeless as might 
seem to be the case, trusting only to the observations 
of some medical writers on this subject. 

Among women, impotence can only depend upon 
vicious conformation, mostly natural, but sometimes 
acquired, and the accidental result of dangerous lacera- 
tions or inflammatory adhesions, following child-birth, 
however, the causes of sterility or barrenness are numer- 
ous. One of the most frequent, being the malady called 
leucorrha^, or " whites." Barrenness is also often caused 
by retention, irregularity, or profusion of the menstrual 
secretion, thereby giviug rise to the diseases known by 
the names of chlorosis, or green sickness, amenorrhea, 
or obstructed menstruation, dysmenorrhea, or painful 
scanty menstruation, and menorrhagia, or excessive 
menstruation aud flooding. It may also proceed from 
frigidity of temperament, or from aversion, reserve or 
indifference, which reuders them insusceptible of any- 
thing more than mere passive submission, instead of ap- 
petency and pleasure ; in short, it is a general irrespond- 
ence in the feelings of the female to those of the male, 



SPERMATORRHOEA. 89 

and when accompanied by sterility, too often give rise 
to reproaches, dissensions and even disgust — converting 
love to hatred, making the nuptial couch a bed of 
thorns instead of roses, marriage a curse rather than a 
blessing. 

There are other causes of barrenness, over which the 
female has no control ; for example, the womb itself may 
be unnaturally small ; the ovaries may be absent ; or 
the fallopictn tubes may be closed. If these things co- 
exist, as the consequence of the close and intense sym- 
pathy existing between the female uterus and the 
breasts, the latter are observed to be correspondingly 
small ; and, contrarily, a free development of these, if 
it be not a mere fatty accumulation, is fair indication 
of a healthy natural condition of the female reproduc- 
tive system. 

The analogy and mode of testing the physical and 
maternal capabilities, which many engaged in the breed- 
ing and rearing of cattle have drawn from the devel- 
opment of the breasts, is by no means unphilosophical 
or indelicate ; any causes therefore, which tend to inter- 
fere with these organs are important. A well known 
aged agriculturist observes on this subject, " I am afraid 
that some of the defects of the French women are to be 
found among the superior classes, particularly in this 
country. The young women are generally much more 
flat-busted than they were sixty years ago. I now see 
them with different feelings, but I can observe forms 
with the same eyes, and several observant women have 
noticed the change. Look at the pictures of a century 



90 SPERMATORRHEA. 

or a century and a half ago, and the hosoms of women 
there represented are not similar to those of modern 
times." How far secret indulgence in unnatural prac- 
tices mry have tended to this, is a question which the 
experience of those who are devoted to such inquiries 
can only decide. 

We have endeavored, as succinctly as possible, to offer 
an intelligible portraiture of the interruptions to sexual 
health, and by explaining the causes in a simple, forci- 
ble, and perspicious manner, to enable the reader to dis- 
entangle the apparently inextricable and confused maze 
of his own wandering and diseased fancies ; to point 
to the concealed, and it may be unsuspected cause of 
suffering, to the restoration of health, vigor, usefulness, 
activity, and joyous hilarity. Why do I suffer? — why, 
when all around me invites to enjoyment ; why is it, 
that while every face wears a smile, existence is to me 
a dreary blank — the world, its pleasures, cares, and 
duties, an irksome weariness ? Are not these questions 
which even a cursory glance at the previous pages will 
enable the misguided to solve ? Long experience of 
human nature, long acquaintance with some of its most 
painful infirmities, enable me to say it will be so. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHEA, MENTAL, MORAL, 

D1ETETICAL, ETC. 



In reference to which, I wish to impress the fact, that 
a most important object to be gained, depends entirely 
upon the patient, that is moral restraint, confirmed by 
the most determined resolution. The desires and pas- 
sions must be controlled ; allow them once to gain the 
mastery, and then farewell to health and peace. After 
perfect and continued abstinence from this pollution is 
insured, and not till then, we may commence with con- 
fidence the medical treatment ; in doing this, we have 
two objects to attain ; first, to renew and invigorate 
the general health, without stimulating or exciting the 
parts more particularly implicated ; secondly, to remove 
local diseases and derangement, and to restore the 
natural functions of all the organs. In furtherance of 
the first indication, it is necessary that the patient ban- 
ish from his mind all melancholy, unnecessary forebod- 
ings and discouraging doubt, as to the speedy and 
effectual cure of his case ; he must summon hope, and 
occupy his thoughts as far as practicable, with pleasing 



92 TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 

amusements ; in furtherance of which, cheerful society 
should be courted. Whatever tends to excite the pas- 
sions should be sacredly eschewed ; and every circum- 
stance likely to incite him to a repetition of his folly, 
should be carefully guarded against. The standard 
works on Zoology, History, Natural Philosophy, and 
even those of the best novelists (forbidding all of sen- 
sual character), may with advantage occupy much of 
his leisure. 

The newspaper — that mighty organ of good and evil, 
attracting the attention of all classes of society, giving 
direction to human opinion, and influencing a world of 
mind, should be read in some intervening moments. In 
like manner may be perused one or more of the numer- 
ous admirable periodicals which grace our age. As with 
the choice of reading, so it is with the choice of com- 
panions. One cannot be long in the company of another, 
without being either the better or the worse ; if, there- 
fore, you would improve by them, accept the counsel of 
the wisest of men : " Go from the presence of a foolish 
man, when thou findest not in him the lips of knowl- 
edge." Time is surely too valuable, and the space 
allotted to man too short, to fritter it away in the society 
of triflers ; and above everything should the compan- 
ionship of those be shunned, whose conversation is 
polluted by profaneness or licentiousness. Young men, 
especially, are very apt, when together, to indulge in 
loose conversation, little thinking that hardly anything 
so argues a degraded mind, a filthy taste, and a foul 
heart ; for " out of a pure heart can come forth nothing 



TREATMENT Off SPERMATORRHEA. 93 

but what is pure." Besides, such conversation is so un- 
meaning, so useless, so wanton, so vile, and so subver- 
sive of everything that is good, that it should never be 
countenanced by any who possess one spark of virtuous 
feeling; for — 



•" when lust, 



By unchaste looks, loose gestures, and foul talk, 
But most by lewd and lavish acts of sin, 
Lets in defilement to the inward parts, 
The soul grows clotted by contagion, 
Imbodiesand imbrutes, till she quite lose 
The divine property of her first being." 

A youth on beginning the world, loses many pleasures 
and many safeguards, too, when he shuts himself out, or 
is shut out, from the humanizing influences of family 
life. It should be the first anxiety of parents, if possi- 
ble, to secure for their children at this most critical 
period, a residence in a well regulated family circle, 
where they will be blessed with social comforts, and 
with the gentle presence of virtuous female society. 
From neglect of this simple precaution, many a man 
has had to date his first departure from the path of 
purity and his final overthrow in the vortex of dissipa- 
tion. 

The exercises of the mind, and those of the body 
should be so regulated, that the one may serve as a 
recreation to the other ; when the circumstances and 
opportunities of the patient permit, change of scene 
and air is highly desirable ; moderate exercise on foot 
or in a carriage should be taken daily ; while riding on 
horseback should be indulged in with caution. 



94 TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 

It is greatly to be deplored that a more liberal feeling 
does not exist among those who employ young persons 
in business, than to exact fourteen or sixteen hours for 
labor or confinement, which must be not only injurious 
to health, but subversive of morality ; and from my ex- 
perience ia diseases which are peculiarly solitary, I am 
of opinion that an immensity of evil may be traced to 
this over-taxation of time and labor. 

It unfortunately happens, that sufferers from this class 
of diseases seldom feel so ill as to seek medical assist- 
ance, till, by continued protraction, they have greatly 
injured their constitution, as also the generative organs 
themselves. It often happens, also, that through the di- 
versified forms of disease resulting from self-pollution, 
the symptoms so closely resemble those diseases of an en- 
tirely different nature, that the attention of the ordin- 
ary practitioner is not directed to the real disease, and 
mere symptoms engross his attention, while the organs 
actually suffering wholly escape notice. Hence the evil 
proceeds, and if its character be eventually suspected, 
it is at a period when the constitution has been so far 
invaded, that its condition demands our immediate and 
earnest attention. Unfortunately, neither the sedative 
powers of leaden girdles, the anti-spasmodic virtues oi 
camphor-bags, nor the cooling properties of nitre, have 
more than imaginary effect in subduing this powerful 
passion, which requires the exertion of the rational 
faculties to give a proper direction to the laws of nature. 

Now, what are the indications of treatment ? Why, 
to remove the provoking causes that brought about the 



TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 95 

first estrangement, and to cultivate the mind into a 
higher notion of its own importance, as nothing is so 
apt to produce a relapse as a return to former practices ; 
reason must resume her seat, and become a convert to 
chastity and honor. And here we would particularly 
remark, that the system generally adopted of employ- 
ing the ordinary tonics to overcome seminal weakness 
is seldom productive of any permanent benefit. The 
seminal fluid is obtained principally from the most vital 
portions of the blood, and it is an excessive drain upon 
this essential secretion that thus fearfully weakens and 
frequently renders wholly inert the generative organs. 
It is by the employment of peculiar combinations pos- 
sessing singularly nutritious, warm, invigorating vir- 
tues, that this important deficiency can be supplied, 
and the consequent depreciation in the character of 
both solids and fluids, effectually overcome. So to act 
upon the seminal vessels, as to impart tone and strength, 
without producing irritation ; or temporarily exciting 
the generative power to renovate the impaired functions, 
by the exhibition of such remedies as shall remove the 
proximate causes of debility and disease, and thus per- 
manently restore the lost energies of the system — is the 
treatment which alone can be successful ; and which 
the experience afforded by several years' careful obser- 
vation, in a practice of no inconsiderable extent, proves 
to be better adapted, and more uniformly applicable to 
every variety and complication of debility, particularly 
that resulting from the excesses to which we have made 
such especial allusion in the preceding pages, than any 



96 TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 

medicine or remedy for such ailments, with which the 
long course of experience has made us acquainted. 

The more powerful of the ordinary aphrodisiacs are 
in the same ratio injurious to the general system, inas- 
much that like most strong stimulants, they are inevita- 
bly succeeded by a corresponding depression of the vital 
energies, which ultimately resolves itself into confirmed 
and irretrievable impotency, and hence it is, and very 
properly, that they are now so seldom employed. Oui 
medicines, on the contrary, gradually impart strength 
to the organs, through the constitution, which they first 
invigorate ; and though gentle in their action, are all 
the more permanent in their effects ; rendering real ser 
vice without the possibility of harm to the system. To 
individuals of either sex, even in the more confirmed 
cases of debility, they are alike adapted ; and a gradual 
return to health and vigor will generally be the happy 
reward of steady perserverance in the employment ot 
our medicines for a shorter or a longer period, according 
to all the peculiar circumstances of the case. 

In those cases where nocturnal emissions are of such 
frequent recurrence as seriously to menace the constitu- 
tion of the sufferer, the first great object of treatment 
should be to check this unnatural and most injurious 
drain upon the system. This effected, we have then to 
repair the previous mischief, by removing all morbid 
irritability ; giving tone and power of retention to the 
seminal vessels, the relaxed condition of which is the 
very foundation of all the mischief. 

The very essence of successful treatment consists in 



TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 97 

first arresting the unnatural loss of that fluid, on the 
healthy retention of which depends so greatly the vigor 
of both mind and body. The rest can readily be accom- 
plished by perseverance and regularity in taking our 
medicines and attending to the general instructions. 

Some writers strenuously advocate the employment of 
Galvanism, or Electricity, as a remedial agent for the 
cure of Spermatorrhoea ; now, although we have ever 
been most prompt to test impartially, every so-called 
remedy which appeared to afford a reasonable prospect 
of success or assistance, and although this among many 
others has been most carefully, regularly, efficiently, and 
perseveringly applied by us personally, yet (and with 
regret we say it) we are bound to confess that it has 
fallen far, very far, short of the high encomiums passed 
upon it by certain of its advocates. 

Still, as a remedial agent in many other complaints, it 
ranks undeniably and deservedly high ; as, for example 
in several of the varieties of paralysis, partial, local, or 
general ; loss of voice, chorea, or St. Vitus' Dance, epi- 
lepsy, apoplexy, etc. In all these and many more 
affections, galvanism properly applied by, or under the 
direction of a medical man (and in other hands infinite 
harm instead of good will be quite as likely to ensue), 
possesses remarkably curative powers. 

Many other remedies (real or imagined) and modes of 
treatment have from time to time been put forth, and 
advocated with all the energy and tenacity of actual 
conviction as to their intrinsic value, but with very 
few exceptions they have speedily sunk into merited 



98 TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 

oblivion. Almost every writer on these matters, past 
or present, lends his advocacy to some novel or particu- 
lar line of treatment, as though he really had faith only 
in the theory of his own adoption, to the exclusion of 
all and everything besides. In one voluminous work 
now before me, published in the early part of the present 
century, the author, in some five hundred pages of 
letter-press, labors to promulgate his very decided and 
unqualified opinion that Cantharides (Spanish Fly h is 
the only remedy for every ailment of the generative 
organs ; and yet this man was of no mean reputation in 
his day. In another work of somewhat more humble 
pretension, blisters are as strenuously recommended. 
Another advocates setons in the perinseum ; this is even 
worse than the plan now almost exploded, of catheter- 
izing the urethra with the porte caustique armed with 
nitrate of silver, as introduced some years ago by the 
late gifted and skillful Lallemand, of Montpelier. 
Others again, advocate the injection of astringent 
lotions into the urethra, but we have never had fche 
good fortune to meet with an instance of success, though 
many cases of failure have come under our notice. 

There are some even among living practitioners, who 
profess to have faith only in preparations of steel or 
iron, assisted by alteratives, cold bathing, etc., and, 
indeed, this is the old-fashioned stereotyped routine 
practice ; in reference to which be it said, that when 
the seminal ducts are so far relaxed that they allow the 
escape of semen with the urine, and on going to stool, 
and when the losses occur with unusual frequency dur- 



TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 99 

ing sleep, or by day, and the blood has become thereby 
seriously deteriorated, some good may possibly result to 
the bodily health from the employment of ferruginous 
medicines, but a relapse of the local weakness soon 
shows any apparent benefit in this particular not to be 
lasting. Another very important circumstance in refer- 
ence to the employment of iron, is its known tendency 
to excite the circulation, and unduly accelerate the 
action of the heart, shown by the distressing palpita- 
tions, headaches, flushings, etc., which often occur dur- 
ing its use. Hence it is contra-indicated in heart and 
brain diseases, or where there exists any tendency to 
these affections, which the use of steel or iron would be 
likely so seriously to aggravate, as to cause sudden 
death. 

The Nitrate of Potash was largely employed and 
recommended by the late McDougal, but as several of 
his former patients have, from time to time, come under 
our care, suffering from the relapse of the symptoms for 
which he thus treated them, we simply record the fact 
as evidence of its untrustworthiness as a remedy. 

The Chlorate of Potash in its action on the system 
closely resembles the preparation immediately preced- 
ing, and is therefore equally disentitled to credit as a 
curative in these complaints. 

Ergot of rye, camphor, hyoscyamus, opium, digitalis, 
lupuline from the strobiles of the hop plant ; nux vom- 
ica, or its alkaloid strichnine ; copaiba, cubebs, Indian 
hemp, etc., have each their advocates, and are all good 
in their way, though only as adjuncts to other treat- 



100 TREATMENT OP SPERMATORRHOEA. 

nient, as they are powerless to effect a permanent cure. 

Strapping or compressing the testicles is useful in 
Varicocele, and in such cases is of positive service in 
reducing the calibre of the vessels and diminishing the 
supply of blood to the part ; but as recommended by 
some as a remedy for Spermatorrhoea, it may be classed 
with the dry cupping ; embrocations to the spine and 
perinseum; the suppositories to place in the rectum (a 
very novel, very useless, and very nasty idea to say the 
least) recommended by others, and which are all just 
so many harmless placebos, concocted solely for the 
amusement of the patient, by whom they may be either 
used or left alone with equal benefit. This, however, 
cannot be said of the mineral acids, as uselessly em- 
ployed by some men, too often to the seiious and per- 
manent injury of their patients' teeth. 

We have placed before our readers the usual remedies 
adopted for the treatment of Nervous and Physical Debil- 
ity and Impotence. Unfortunately it too often happens 
that the deluded victim of Self-indulgence, after en- 
deavoring in vain to find relief from the consequence 
of early error — sinks at last into a state ot lethargy. 

Now in concluding this part of our subject, we may 
be allowed to observe that it is right and useful that all 
men should know that there are principles of personal 
management which cannot be violated without the 
incurral of grevious penalties ; it is right they should 
know, when wisdom and regret succeed the heyday of 
inconsiderate self-indulgence, how these penalties may 
be mitigated, and how the sting of their remorse may 



TREATMENT OF SPERMATORRHOEA. 101 

ultimately be removed. The most absurd of all emo- 
tions is that of despair. Let the sufferer remember that 
there is scarcely any degree of weakcess or functional 
derangement to which the timely aid of science cannot 
apply a cure. 



CHAPTER V. 



ON MARRIAGE ; ITS OBLIGATIONS AND EXCESSES ; WITH 
A FEW REMARKS ON MATRIMONIAL UNHAPPINESS. 



Marriage is an institution of divine origin. It is the 
bond of union between the sterner order of our nature, 
and the gentler sympathies of the female. When a be- 
loved object is about to be united to her faithful suitor, 
the heart is fraught with the most ecstatic feelings. 
The various disappointments tnat may have beset out 
path are all about to be dispersed ; the difficulties that 
arose in our way are now no more, and the blushing ob- 
ject of our regard has consented to repose within our 
embracing and endearing arms. 

We are not only about to fulfill a natural, but a moral 
and divine injunction. God has commanded us "to in- 
crease and multiply " our species ; we have been desired 
to leave the early home of our youth ; the tender solici- 
tude of our parents, and all the sweet communion of 
the hearth circle to which we have been accustomed 
from our happy childhood, and to fulfill our promises 
of fidelity to our well chosen spouse, to cleave unto her 
that our union may be " twain in one flesh." 



ON MARHIAGE. 103 

To persons properly constituted, mentally and bodily, 
there can be no greater happiness than that derived from 
the mutual intercourse, the mutual love and endear- 
ments of an affectionate couple bound to each other in 
the lawful bonds of matrimony. The " Cynthia of the 
minute" has no charms comparable to the connubial 
delight of a fond indulgent pair. The frail one has 
nothing to bestow but the vehicle of sensuality, the pos- 
session of which " filthy lucre n can obtain at any time. 
Her charms are common property ; her blandishments 
are unreal ; her smile a hollow mockery of affection. 
The caresses she bestows on the ardent youth are trans- 
ferred to tottering imbecility and age ; while the young 
wife, " lovely as she is good, and good as fair," has in 
the full plentitude of her power surrendered herself 
into the embraces of her " one true husband." Mar- 
riage, however, is not altogether made up of " sighs and 
wreathed smiles." Though it has its devotions, it has 
also its obligations 5 and the divine command, " increase 
and multiply," can only be obeyed by those in the full 
possession of mental and bodily vigor ; by those who 
have preserved the golden stream until the time of its 
flood ; who have not plucked the fruit until the day of 
its juicy ripeness. To such happy creatures the nuptial 
bed is indeed redolent of entrancing joys. The cares of 
life are swallowed up in the ample provision that 
bountiful nature has made for her devoted servants. 
Enjoyment is in his power, and his arm need only to be 
stretched forth to obtain and to possess. Yet we are 
uot permitted to be lavish of our possessions. The tree 



104 OK Marriage. 

must not be stripped of all its fruit : or we must tarry 
till the spring shall renew the fallen leaves. Excessive 
indulgence must not drain the cup of pleasure to its 
dregs, and then expect that pleasure shall still exist. 
A prolific cause of much unhappiness among the married, 
is excessive sexual intercourse ; it destroys the life on 
which it ought to feed ; it sows the seeds of misery 
within the hallowed pale of wedlock. 

But what stamps effectually the seal of nature's 
reprobation on excessive matrimonial indulgence, is its 
destruction of the health of woman. Is it not a most 
prolific source of those distressing female complaints 
which bury half our married females prematurely, and 
seriously impair the remainder ? Do not thousands of 
our women die in consequence ? Many a husband has 
buried more wives than one, killed outright, ignorantly, 
yet effectually by the brutality of this passion. As 
overeating diminishes the power of appetite, so excess 
engenders those diseases which cut off this very pleas- 
ure. By causing the prolapsus uteri, albus, etc., it ren- 
ders this intercourse utterly repugnant — mentally, and 
painful physically; thus inducing the penalty in the 
direct line of the transgression. It prevents or impairs 
the offspring. Whatever enfeebles or diseases the sex- 
ual apparatus, of course impairs its products, or else 
prevents offspring altogether. This indulgence causes 
barrenness. 

It deteriorates woman in the estimation of man. Lust 
carries with it the feeling and sense of degradation. He 
who indulges frequently, even with his lawful wife, 



OK MARRIAGE* 105 

cannot but associate her in his own mind with this de- 
based feeling to which she administers. He first debases 
her by his brutality, and then despises her for being de- 
based. It is a law of mind that this excess should pro- 
duce contempt for its partner. The libertine never 
speaks well of women as a sex ; the reasons are obvious. 
First, rogues suspect all men of being rogues ; liars, of 
being deceptive ; and the sensual of sensuality. The 
opinion that Pope expresses, when he says that 

" Every woman is a rake at heart," 
comes under the category of suspicion. Then again, 
the libertine has only, or mainly, been acquainted with 
woman as a sexual thing, and not as a pure, refined and 
affectionate being. Her sexuality he has particularly 
noticed, and this vice he detests in himself, and there- 
fore in her. 

The grand rule to be observed in the sexual obliga- 
tions of marriage, is to ensure a reciprocity of feeling 
in the female while we do not attempt a too frequent 
recurrence of the act. Without a due attention to this 
simple but natural maxim, the cares of matrimony will 
be increased, and the object for which sexual inter 
course was established, will be entirely frustrated and 
destroyed. 

We hope our readers may not for one moment imagine 
that because we have exposed the evils of matrimonial 
indulgence, we are any less disposed to be severe on 
that indiscriminate indulgence of an illegal description ; 
far from it. We are too well acquainted with the shock- 
ing results of promiscuous indulgence : to be eaten up 



106 ott Marriage!. 

by piecemeal with sores and ulcers, nauseating and 
loathsome beyond description — to lose bone and muscle 
and nerve by inches ; and literally be eaten up alive ; 
besides being simultaneously tortured with agony the 
most excruciating mortals can endure. We may indeed 
offer remedies for the alleviation of these fearful visit- 
ations, but we cannot say one word in palliation or ex- 
tenuation of the crime which produces such manifold 
miseries. We are aware that this curse ceases not with 
the original offender, but is justly entailed upon the 
children of the wicked " unto the third and fourth gen- 
erations." We behold, indeed, with pity, the poor, 
maimed and hobbling object, his limbs distorted, his 
joints dislocated and racked with pain, his life ever 
tormented with foul and running ulcers ; his mind fee- 
ble and his passions ungovernable. A celebrated phy- 
sician on one occasion made this remark to us, while we 
were discussing this subject, " a father's licentiousness 
is a more prolific cause of scrofula, consumptions and 
kindred affections, than any other I can name." We 
have had cases under our treatment that had broken 
out in the patient after being dormant for two or three 
successive generations. What a cause then, for matri- 
monial reflections. To imagine a pure and tender 
mother, whose illicitly-corresponding husband had con- 
taminated with this foul disease, bringing forth a child 
Of apparent beauty and lusty health, to be " covered 
with ulcers, and grow unclean and filthy beyond meas- 
ure." 
Joined to this, the victim of promiscuous intercourse, 



ON MARRIAGE. 107 

> 

fearful that any should be made acquainted with his 
constitutional bankruptcy, undertakes to cure himself; 
and when he has nearly ruined his body, and under- 
mined the health of his innocent wife, he betakes him- 
self to a medical adviser, only to become convinced that 
had he applied for assistance in time, his constitution 
would have been saved — the life of his partner pro- 
longed, and his children had lived to bless him by a 
long and happy, and healthy existence. 

How fearful it is to contemplate the havoc that illicit 
intercourse has made in the peace and happiness of 
families! The man who brings the offerings of his 
manhood unimpaired to the shrine of Hymen, has 
indeed presented an uncommon gift ; for how many are 
there who have lost their manly prowess in the fields 
of Venus ! who have trod the deceitful and insinuating 
labyrinth of self-abuse, and have rendered themselves 
unworthy the title of man, and unfitted themselves for 
the performance of that duty which nature demands 
when the link of affection has been cemented in mar- 
riage. 

No man can presume to enter on the list of reproduc- 
tive qualities when his organs of generation are incom- 
petent to meet the coming exigencies of the state. 
Moral causes have sometimes interfered to prevent sex- 
ual congress being duly accomplished ; but physical 
impotence acts more frequently, and decidedly more in- 
fluentially in every case that we have ever noted. We 
have already hinted at the causes which lead to impo- 
tence ; they are numerous and somewhat conflicting. 



108 ON MARRIAGE. , 

The principal are early in continence, the debasing 
habit of self-abuse, and the rigorous observance of 
chastity The organs of generation, like every other 
organ in the hnman frame, require to be exercised iD 
order to keep them in a healthy condition ; but this 
exercise must not be construed into an absolute abuse. 

There is an old proverb, that extremes meet, and it is 
an absolute fact that the extreme of indulgence and 
the extreme of chastity equally lead to the same result. 
Moderation is a virtue, though total abstinence may 
not be a crime. Temperance in all things is the happy 
medium we have to observe, as " extremes in good" are 
said "to lead to evil." The anchorites, who, retired 
from the companionship of mankind, lived alone from 
communion with woman ; wrapping themselves in the 
cloak and covering of mysterious contemplation, prac- 
tising the most rigorous penances, and observing the 
strictest chastity, become so impotent that the organs 
of generation were, as it would appear, actually dried 
and shriveled away, and showed nothing more of men 
than if they had never attained the age of puberty. 

It is not to be imagined that because the dispositions 
of the young and beautiful of females are gentle and 
affectionate, they will always rest passive and content 
under the knowledge that the marital engagements 
cannot be fulfilled. Though they may be pure and un- 
sullied in the ways of sexuality, the still small voice of 
nature teaches them the secret which marriage is sup- 
posed to divulge ; and a young female full of animal 
vigor, waiting with patient expectancy for the embraces 



ON MA.RRIAGE 109 

of connubial love, cannot be supposed to bear the pangs 
of bitter disappointment without reflecting on its sole 
and offending cause. Did she know that the cause of 
her baffled expectations had rendered himself impotent 
by the filthy habit of his own hands, would she not 
loathe and detest him ? Would she not spurn him from 
her arms with the same feelings as if he had proclaimed 
himself the basest murderer ? To such imbecile suffer- 
ers we particularly address ourselves. We call upon 
them to "hope against hope," to try our helping hand; 
and though he may have contracted marriage in his 
impotent state, let him confidently rely on our hermet- 
ically sealed silence and secrecy, and he may shortly be 
enabled to hold " her whom his soul loveth " in a warm 
embrace, and complete the duties of mankind as be- 
comes a competent and vigorous man. Let us caution 
him, should he be still disengaged by marriage, not to 
brave the risk of embittering his home and all its 
social and domestic joys ; not to trust to his supposed 
abilities when his course of self-indulgence whispers 
serious doubts of his efficiency ; let him not indulge the 
delusive hope that the fair form and glorious majesty 
of virtue will be incentives to his weakened and un- 
healthy functions ) for we tell him that a single failure 
in this particular office has frequently blasted the buds 
of female affection, and have sent the impotent pre- 
tender in utter confusion to hide his shame-covered 
head in some desolate cave of the earth, " where he 
passed his days and died at last, unwept, unhonored 
and unknown," Nature is absolute in all her laws ; she 



110 ON MARRIAGE. 

will not be governed at will ; her subjects must attend 
to her commandments, and not dare to transgress her 
wise ordinations ; when once offended she is not so soon 
appeased ; and it is only by the strictest attention to 
the rules and instructions which her high priests (the 
medical professors) have laid down, that the afflicted 
can ever expect to be restored to the state of former 
health and strength which they once enjoyed, and 
which they have lost by their consummate foolishness, 
Hope should ever stimulate the sufferer to renewed 
exertions for the recovery and reinstatement of his lost 
fortunes ; and in order to engender and keep alive that 
hope, it is absolutely necessary that confidence, or faith, 
should be made participator in this anticipation. But 
as the watchmaker cannot repair a watch without min- 
utely examining every portion of the complicated 
mechanism ; so the surgeon must be made aware of 
every peculiarity of disease by means of the patient ; 
every symptom must be minutely detailed ; every sen- 
sation revealed that effects the unhappy sufferer. 



CHAPTEE VI. 



DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS J GONORRHOEA, 
ITS SYMPTOMS AND TREATMENT J OBSERVATIONS ON 
SWELLED TESTICLES, STRICTURE AND GLEET. 



The gratification of sexual passion is a natural con- 
sequence of our physical conformation ; its moderate 
use is beneficial ; its abuse highly injurious ; for it is 
but too well known that from the unrestricted connec- 
tion of the sexes have arisen certain classes of diseases 
which more or less deeply affect the human frame. How 
or when the venereal diseases were first introduced into 
Europe are questions that have repeatedly been asked, 
but never satisfactorily solved. Some maintain that 
they are of Eastern origin, others contend that they are 
inherent to humanity, and have always existed as the 
opposite of the sexual pleasure ; just as apoplexy would 
result from over indulgence in eating, or as spontan- 
eous combustion might arise from confirmed drunken- 
ness. Certain it is, however, these diseases do exist, 
whatever may have been their origin, and that they are 
poisonous and contagious though not epidemical. The 
poisons generated and transmitted by sexual contact 



112 blSEASES OF INFECTION. 

are of a peculiarly malignant and destructive nature. 
Numerous constitutions have been victimized by this 
noxious impurity, for dreadful havoc is soon made on 
the body when the disease is neglected ; as soon there- 
fore as contagion is imbibed, proper steps ought to be 
immediately taken, before it becomes deeply rooted in 
the system ; nor are the effects confined to the first suf- 
ferer only ; they are communicated to the innocent, and, 
too frequently the virtuous wife has become sacrificed 
to the husband's adulterous intercourse with profligate 
and abandoned women, and the unborn infant inherits, 
even in the womb, the baneful fruits of its father's de- 
pravity. The various organs and parts of the body 
have their distinct functions, and some portions of the 
frame are more susceptible of particular diseases that 
others. All poisons permeate the body and inflame the 
stomach. In common language, one of them, as gonorr- 
hoea, or clap, limits itself to the surface on which it 
falls ; others, like the sypbillis, or lues venerae, derange 
the entire system of the constitution. The latter dis- 
ease arises from a morbid poison which produces con- 
tamination by contact, and is capable of being infinitely 
propagated. The matter of gonorrhoea if applied to the 
skin, or to any secreting surface, produces local inflam- 
mation and a peculiar discharge, mostly without breach 
of surface ; while noxious virus or pox occasions, where 
it falls, an ulcerated,ragged destruction of parts, styled 
in medical parlance, a chancre. 

The peculiar secretion of a chancre is frequently 
taken up by the absorbent vessels of the living system, 



DISEASES OF INFECTION. 113 

and conveyed into the mass of the circulating blood ; 
and in its passage through the glands of the groins, 
nearest the spot originally infected, these bodies are apt 
to enlarge, inflame, become intensely painful, to sup- 
purate and burst, forming the complication known by 
the name of the bnbo. The original sore may heal, yet 
from the poisonous qualities being communicated to 
the general absorbent system, fearful consequences may 
arise, and the body be infected with the virus, inducing 
constitutional syphillis, showing itself in thoracic in- 
flammation, t and producing diseases of the skin with 
painful enlargement of the bones. We will, however, 
in our present remarks confine ourselves to gonorrhoea, 
the most common, yet an intensely painful and trouble- 
some disorder, which is rendered by frequent occur- 
ence one of the greatest social evils that can fall to the 
'ot of our species. 

Gonorrhoea is common in both man and woman — in 
the former it generally attacks the urethra; in the 
latter the vagina, urethra, clitoris and nymphse, are all 
affected. The first symptom of gonorrhoea is generally 
an itching at the orifice of the urethra, sometimes ex- 
tending over the whole glans, and a tingling sensation 
is felt, but so slight that it only serves to provoke more 
frequent erections, and a desire for sexual intercourse. 
This is followed by incipient inflammation, and its 
power of awakening the copulative propensity is so re- 
markable, that women of abandoned character can tell 
when they have received new infection, from the pres- 
ence of that excitement, and those desires to which they 



114 DISEASES Otf INFECTtOK. 

are, in an unaffected state so usually unaccustomed. 
This irritation or itching is presently exchanged for an 
uneasy sensation, and the penis assumes a kind of semi- 
erect position, or fulness ; the lips of the urethra are 
•welled and pouting, and, if turned outwards, are found 
to be of an unnatural scarlet hue. The whole urinary 
canal secretes a quantity of mucus, and is endued with 
a high degree of sensibility. This increased secretion 
of mattery fluid arises from various causes ; a narrow- 
ness of the urinary canal takes place from the thicken- 
ing and swelling of the mucous membrane which forms 
its lining ; a partial retention of the urine follows, and 
the parts adjacent are diseased. Irritation goes on in 
the surrounding organs in proportion to the virulence 
of the attending symptoms, and the disposition of the 
body to receive and retain infection ; as our readers 
need not be informed that some persons are more in- 
tensely susceptible of inflammation than others. 

When this irritation has fairly commenced, the com' 
mon law of organization is naturally fulfilled, and copi- 
ous effusion from the inflamed surface supervenes. The 
acuteness of sensible pain is increased and is referred 
to the course of the urethra, and a discharge, which is 
at first transparent, watery and somewhat whitish fluid, 
is soon changed, loses its transparency, and is glutin- 
ous, ropy, of a stringy consistency ; it next assumes an 
opaque, whitish, yellowish, or even of a slightly green- 
ish hue. 

It seldom happens that there is any considerable pain 
experienced until after the appearance of the discharge, 



DISEASES OF INFECTION. 115 

and some men of weak and feeble powers suffer little 
or nothing either before or after the discharge. Cases 
vary greatly with the virulence or mildness 01 the 
poison received. In most instances, a great degree of 
soreness is felt at times along the under side of the 
penis, accompanied by a sense of fullness, long before 
discharge takes place. The glans, or nut, assumes a 
transparent cast, which is chiefly visible near the begin- 
ning of the urethra. The entrance of the urinary canal 
is often found to be excoriated, especially if the glutin- 
ous matter that is apt to gather round the mouth of 
the orifice is not washed away, as it infects that part 
by being suffered to remain and harden round that place. 
The first painful symptom experienced by the patient 
is scalding. This characteristic of the disease is greatly 
augmented by sympathy ; for the fear of the sufferer 
disposes the urethra to convulsive contraction, and the 
stream of urine is suddenly obstructed, passing in 
scattered and unequal spurtings as it escapes with 
pain and difficulty from the diseased and irritated 
canal. With some this inflammation is not very intense, 
and merely a slight running, with inconsiderable heat 
and soreness, is observable ; this is the case with per- 
sons of cold and insusceptible constitutions. Others 
are very severely afflicted, inflammation runs high, and 
that painful affection of the penis is experienced called 
chordee. This is caused by the altered length of the 
penis, which the urethra being obliged to accommodate, 
is bent or curved downwards with great pain. The 
agony is intense, if an attempt be made to lift the penis 



116 DISEASES OF INFECTION. 

towards the belly ; this suffering, however, does not 
last any length of time, if cold applications he used, 
though it is apt to return when warm in bed. 

There are many other concomitant diseases attendant 
on gonorrhoea — one is the painful affection named phy- 
mosis. A chancre or any immediate irritant, may pro- 
duce this state of the parts, but generally it is observed 
as supervening upon gonorrhoea. The prepuce, or fore- 
skin, is inflamed and thickened, and it cannot be drawn 
back so as to uncover the nut or glans; the discharge 
is then apt to insinuate itself beneath, and ulcerations 
are the frequent result. This tightness of the prepuce 
is productive of bad consequences, particularly in the 
case of a chancre producing irritation ; for the glans 
being between the orifice of the prepuce and the sore 
producing the swelling, the pus is confined, and it 
accumulates round the edge of the glans so as to cause 
painful ulcers in the inner surface of the foreskin. 
Great caution ought to be observed in the remedial 
measures for the removal of this affection ; and, though 
the cure is perfectly surgical, an inexperienced hand 
might induce mortification by too rash use of the 
knife. It will be in all cases absolutely necessary to 
abate the inflammation previous to dividing the pre- 
jpuce with the knife. Paraphymosis is that condition 
of the organs when the prepuce cannot be drawn for- 
ward so as to cover the head of the penis, but remains 
swelled, and grasping the glans in strangulating and 
painful constriction. This disarrangement is often so 
great -as to impede circulation, threatening mortificaton, 
and sloughing the glans. 



DISEASES OF INFECTION. 117 

Sometimes the bladder is affected, in which case it 
becomes more susceptible of every species of local irri- 
tation ; the patient, under such circumstances, can 
with difficulty restrain his urine, the discharge of which 
is attended with violent pain in the bladder and glans, 
similar to what is felt in complaints of the stone. Some- 
times the kidneys sympathize in the general irritation, 
but this is not of very frequent occurrence. 

Sympathetic buboes, or inflammatory enlargements 
of the glandular parts of the groin, are apt to accom- 
pany the progress of gonorrhoea. The characteristics 
of venereal or syphilitic bubo and gonorrhceal bubo 
are nearly similar, but require a decidedly different 
treatment. 

Venereal bubo is almost certain to run on to suppura- 
tion and burst ; whereas gonorrhceal bubo very rarely 
under proper medical care becomes converted into an 
abcess. Errors of judgment are liable to occur in dis- 
covering! the difference, and it is possible to mistake 
an enlargement (which, in every respect, is truly 
syphilitic) from that which is purely, and less injuri- 
ously, gonorrhceal. 

We have had patients reduced to a deplorable state 
by lues venerea, from the inexperience or ignorance of 
practitioners ; and our utmost skill has had to be called 
into action before we could dissipate the ill effects of 
the unscientific treatment to which the sufferer had 
been subjected. 

Swelled testicle is a common symptom attending gon- 
orrhoea. This is a purely sympathetic affection, and 



118 DISEASES OF INFECTION. 

appears first as a soft fullness of the testicle, which be- 
comes tender under pressure ; hardness follows and ac- 
companied by considerable pain. Sometimes the sper- 
matic cords are affected, and the veins of the testicles 
become varicose. The bowels enter into the general 
syrnjjathy, and are frequently attended by cholic pains ; 
nausea is felt and vomiting ensues; the organs of 
digestion are impaired, and general debility necessarily 
follows. Swelling of the testicle sometimes entirely 
removes the discharge, as the absorbent vessels have 
taken up the virulent pus and deposited it in the seat 
of the pain ; at other times discharge accompanies the 
swelling, and ceases with its restoration to its natural 
dimensions. If the constitution be irritable, or if the 
patient indulge in his usual regimen and exercises dur- 
ing the first stages of gonorrhoea, this distressing com- 
plaint may be expected. Medicines strongly purgative, 
and of a saline or acrimonious description, will induce 
this affection ; but a frequent cause of its production is 
the incautions exhibition of irritating and astringent 
injections used for the cure of the running. 

As we have observed, that as this symptom of gonorr- 
heal affection is the most painful, so it is the most dan- 
gerous consequence of the disease, and the patient that 
tampers with its cure exposes himself to much suffering, 
and a train of evils of which he has no conception, An- 
other cause of gonorrhceal inflammation is spasmodic 
stricture. This disease may arise from many causes, and 
attack individuals of any age, most commonly the young 
and those who are of an ardent and plethoric disposition. 



DISEASES OF INFECTION. 119 

Inflammatory stricture may be expected from repeated 
attacks of the clap, as the lining mucous membrane 
of the urinary canal becomes thickened and diseased, 
particularly that portion of it that is seated near the 
neck of the bladder. 

Stricture may creep on after marriage, and produce 
many serious effects, as the person who is afflicted in 
this way is not in a proper condition to effect a produc- 
tive intercourse with his partner; since the seminal 
liquor, however prolific and healthful it may be, cannot 
be ejected with sufficient force into the womb, but fre- 
quently falls close to the extremity of the penis. The 
pleasure of the female is not only considerably dimin- 
ished, but her hopes of having children by such a per- 
son can have little foundation while this stricture re- 
mains. We have known many instances of men who, 
after marriage, have consulted us on this subject, and 
we are happy to add that their complaints have dis- 
appeared, and a smiling family of fine children now re- 
ward the pains they took for the removal of their inca- 
pacity. 

Excepting stricture, there is nothing so troublesome 
and so truly injurious to the constitution, as a confirmed 
gleet. This chronic, semi-transparent discharge often 
remains after the ordinary symptoms of acute gonorr- 
hoea have abated. Some authorities have been of opin- 
ion that gleet is of a scrofulous character, an opinion 
which is strengthened by the circumstance that cold 
sea water bathing nas been found very beneficial as a 
remedy ; others have thought it to be a result of debil- 



120 DISEASES OF INFECTION. 

ity ; but this idea, though it may occasionally be correct, 
is certainly often erroneous, for the treatment founded 
on this supposition has been found to operate injuri- 
ously. This discharge appears not to have any specific 
quality, but to vary according to the constitution of 
the patient, or to the condition of the parts affected ; 
and, therefore, it is beyond the bounds of possibility to 
lay down any universal system of cure ; for, as in 
gonorrhoea, what to one might prove serviceable will 
be hurtful to another. The matter of gleet may not be 
all purulent matter, but partly a mixture of discharges 
from the secretory organs, and from the vesiculae sem- 
inals, when their ducts are affected. 

In the cure of gleet many have had recourse to the 
use of astringent injections, as also the bougie ; we have 
already cautioned our friends against the inconsiderate 
exhibition of both these remedies ; the first may cause 
stricture to a frightful extent ; and the last, especially 
in the hands of the untaught or unskillful, may lead 
to results worse, if possible, than the original disease 
itself. We may also enumerate inflammatory disease 
and enlargement of the prostate gland as the followers 
of severe cases of gonorrhoea. We have already hinted 
its serious effects while speaking of venereal conse- 
quences, as engendering complaints of the bladder, and 
producing torments that destroy all relish for the en- 
joyment of the most transient pleasure, making the 
life of man one continued scene of misery, without the 
hope of amelioration of pain for one moment. These 
frightful results of human infirmity have, at all times* 



DISEASES OF INFECTION. 121 

our most patient investigation, and we flatter ourselves 
that we have been the means of bestowing the blessings 
of relief when the last spark of hope was nearly extinct. 



CHAPTER VII. 



ON VENEREAL AFFECTIONS, THEIR SYMPTOMS AND 
TREATMENT ; MERCURIAL PREPARATIONS ) THEIR EVIL 
RESULTS. 



The poison producing syphilis is essentially different 
from that producing gonorrhoea ; as the former contains 
a poisonous virus which destroys the substance of the 
surfaces on which it falls ; hence its effects are more 
certain and more frightfully rapid. The chief difficulty 
in all syphilitic affections, is to discover whether ab- 
sorption has taken place, and if so, to what extent ; if 
none of the virus has been absorbed, the disease may be 
treated with ease and safety; whereas, when absorp- 
tion has followed illicit connection, the case is often at- 
tended with difficulty and danger. 

We must not only remove the external symptoms, 
but we must penetrate into the recesses of the system^ 
and root out the lurking poison that courses along " the 
gates and alleys of our body ; n for, unless we can do 
this, and effectually, too, we only afford temporary 
relief, and the patient is not only liable to a relapse, 
but he is capable of contaminating the lovely and the 
innocent, 



SPECIAL DISEASES. 123 

This disease is most commonly developed on the body 
by means of the local sores of a female, producing in- 
oculation, and consequent similar sores, sometimes sin- 
gular, but occasionally numerous, and affecting for the 
most part the external genitals. These sores, or ulcers 
are named chancre ; it is formed on the male organs on 
the foreskin and glans or nut of the penis, and has a red 
or angry appearance ; spreads gradually, and if it be al- 
lowed to remain neglected, frequently eats into the 
male organ, and causes its complete destruction. The 
lapse of time between the application of the poison and 
the appearance of the chancre is uncertain ; it is thought 
by some to exceed the period alluded to in describing 
gonorrhoea, but even this is doubtful. 

The first symptom is an irritation, or itching of the 
part ; this, if the place affected be the glans, is suc- 
ceeded by an inflamed pimple, small and watery, which 
soon displays a rapidly enlarging ulcerated sore. A 
hollow is seen in the center, extending beneath the 
skin, excessively painful and sensitive ; ablush of dark 
fiery redness is seen round the ulcer, and the skin be- 
comes unusually thickened and firm. The surface of 
this sore is yellow, with hard and ragged edges; its 
outline is irregular and there is a feeling of tension to 
the touch. The genitals are not only affected with 
these ulcers, but they may be found on any other part 
of the body, should that particular part be invested 
with a mucous membrane, as, for example, the lips or 
nostrils, and sometimes the chancre appears on the 
fraenum, and, in this case, the part is often destroyed ; 



194 SPECIAL DISEASES. 

or ulceration passes through it and contributes much 
to retard the cure. The irritation caused by chancre 
on the glans occasionally produces a sympathetic affec- 
tion of the urethra or urinary canal, which exhibits 
itself in what is generally termed venereal gonorrhoea. 

The testicles and scrotum also sympathize and are 
often much diseased. If a chancre be limited to the 
external surface it progresses slowly ; but if its destruc- 
tive ravages have extended deeply beneath the skin, 
mortification, will, too frequently, be the result. 

There are four remarkable characteristics in venereal 
chancre ; the first is generally known by its circular 
form, its excavated surface, covered by a layer of tena- 
cious and adherent matter, and its hard, cartilaginous 
base and margin. 

The second form of chancre is unaccompanied by any 
appearance of induration, but exhibiting an elevated 
margin, which appears frequently on the outside of the 
prepuce and seldom exists alone ; this is denominated 
11 the superficial chancre with raised edges. ,, 

The third form, termed phagedenic, or malignant 
chancre, is a corroding ulcer without granulations, and 
distinguished by its circumference being of a livid or 
red color ; and the fourth is a most formidable kind of 
chancre, called the sloughing ulcer. It makes its ap- 
pearance by a black spot, which spreads and becomes 
detached, leaving a deepened and unhealthy looking 
surface which is very difficult to remove. This sore ds 
exceedingly painful and encircled with a purple inflam- 
matory circle. Sloughing is an ordinary result of con- 



SPECIAL DISEASES. 125 

tinued or neglected chancre, which frequently ends not 
only in the destruction of the parts of generation, but, 
by the enervating effects on the constitution, in gradual 
consumption and death. 

The venereal poison from the four already quoted 
kinds of ulcers is usually taken by absorption from the 
chancre to the glans of the groin ; the virus being con- 
veyed along the lymphatics, and in its passage produc- 
ing inflammation of these vessels. Bubo, or swelling of 
the groin, is the result of this absorption. It is the con- 
sequence of chancre or gonorrhoea. In the case of chan- 
cre, that side of the groin is generally affected on which 
the chancre appears on the penis ; in the latter case 
both glands are at times affected. The real bubo gen- 
erally begins with a sense of acute pain which proceeds 
from the tumor affecting the purulent formation. This 
pain increases, and has a tendency to suppuration, more 
or less retarded, according to the nature of the consti- 
tution. The bubo retains its original position till after 
suppuration, and then it becomes more widely spread, 
the suppuration is extensive, the agony considerable, 
and the skin highly florid. Sometimes scrofulous en- 
largements of the groin are mistaken for venereal bubos, 
but they are very different in character, as they are 
slightly painful and difficult to suppurate. 

The venereal diseases becomes constitutional by the 
absorption and transmission of a poisonous virus ; first 
perhaps through a primary ulcer to the groin, and after- 
wards spreading itself throughout the entire system of 
the blood-vessels. The circulating fluid being once con- 



126 SPECIAL DISEASES, 

taminated, the various solid structures of the body be- 
come gradually affected and poisoned. 

Bubos in the groin constitute the first degree, then 
follow pains, cruelly affecting the head, the joints of the 
shoulders, arms and ankles. There are also scabs and 
scurf in various parts of the body ; sometimes these 
scabs are dispersed over the body similar to the disease 
of leprosy. 

The symptoms gradually increase, especially the pain, 
which becomes so intense that the patient is unable to 
lie in his bed. Afterwards, nodes arise on the skull, 
shin bones, and bones of the arms, which being attended 
with constant pain and inflammation, at length grow 
carious and putrid. 

Malignant ulcers now seize different parts of the body, 
but generally begin with the throat, and thence grad- 
ually creep by the palate to the cartilage of the nose, 
which they destrcy, and the nose being destitute of its 
natural support fails down flat. Besides these symptoms 
the following are observable in a confirmed lues, though 
they do not appear in all patients, nor at the same time. 
The skin, especially about the neck and breast, and 
between the shoulders, is covered with flat spots, like 
freckles, of a rosy, purple, yellow or livid hue, sometimes 
distinct, small rnd round, like lentiles ; sometimes more 
enlarged and extended. They are full of itchy pus- 
tules, tetters and ringworms. There are chaps in the 
palms of the hands and the soles of the feet, with vio- 
lent itching, from whence proceeds a clear, serous 
liquor, and the epidermous peels off in large flakes. 



SPECIAL DISEASES. 127 

The skin thus affected abounds with hard, callous, 
round pustules, rising a little on the top, generally dry, 
but sometimes moist, scaly, branny and yellow; fre- 
quently on the corners of the lips and the sides of the 
nostrils, but more especially on the forehead, temples 
and behind the ears, where they appear in rows, like 
strings of beads, and gradully creep among the hair. 
The hair not only falls off from the head, but leaves all 
parts of the body where it grows. The nails become 
unequal, thick, wrinkled and rough ; afterwards ulcers 
arise which cause them to fall off. 

The inside of the mouth, throat and nose are also af- 
fected. The uvula and tonsils become painful, hot, in- 
flamed and ulcerated ; pustules appear in the roof of the 
mouth, which degenerate into round, malignant ulcers, 
which rot the bone as far as the nostrils. The affection 
of the throat is a white, slimy looking ulceration, and 
there is a most offensive discharge, with a fetid breath, 
the soft palate being not unfrequently completely re- 
moved, or hanging in detached portions ; in fact, the 
upper and back parts of the throat present one vast ulcer- 
ated cavity, covered with adhesive matter, and not only 
does the voice become hoarse, thick, low, but swallow- 
ing the softest food is difficult and painful. The lining 
membrane of the nose is also affected ; the bones and 
cartilages are affected; an incrustation forms on the 
surface, and should this be removed a quantity of 
bloody mucous matter is seen on the part exposed. 

As this horrid disease progresses, it very frequently 
leaves the face in a loathsome disfigurement ; the cavity 



128 . SPECIAL DISEASES. 

of the nostrils is exposed from the throat, the natural 
prominence of the countenance is destroyed, and a dis- 
gusting ulceration alone marks the place where the 
nasal organ once existed. 

A syphilitic disease of the bones is the usual conse- 
quence of the existence of venereal inflammation of their 
investing membrane. The bones are affected in various 
ways ; in the middle exostoses arise, either hard or soft, 
sometimes with intense pain, sometimes without. The 
heads of the bones enlarge every way, but unequally, 
which produces tumors, pains, difficulty in motion, and 
stiff joints. As the caries increase, they become brittle, 
and break upon the least effort. Sometimes they are 
so far dissolved as to bend like wax. The long round 
bones, as those of the legs, are generally the first that 
suffer an attack ; hence, those enlargements on the 
shins, well known as Venereal Nodes, which are, in 
reality, inflammatory enlargement and thicking of peri- 
osteum, which covers them, and passes into the actual 
disorganization of the bone itself. 

A very considerable time after the chancre has healed, 
the patient complains, in the evening of each day, of 
increasing pains and aching in the legs, or in some par- 
ticular place on one of them. There is not much swell- 
ing at first, and what there is generally disappears 
toward morning. Great sensibility of pain occurs at 
evening again, and the sleep is broken from the fever 
and irritation which accompany his rest. 

Neither do the ears and eyes escape the fury of this 
clisease, for the latter are externally affected with pains, 



SPECIAL DISEASES. 129 

redness and continual itching ; and, internally, are 
loaded with humors, the sight is destroyed, and some- 
times a suppuration supervenes. The ears are also 
affected with a singing noise, dullness of hearing, deaf- 
ness and pain, whilst their internal surface is exulcer- 
ated and rendered carious. While we are treating of 
the eyes and ears being so sensibly affected by the syph- 
ilitic influence, we may here observe should the matter 
secreted in the urethra, during the progress of clap, be 
applied iucautiously to the eye with a towel in washing 
or by the finger, the slightest particle of that virulent 
poison is sufficient of itself to inflame that tender organ 
to so serious degree, that, if proper remedies be neglected, 
a total loss of sight will inevitably be the result. 

The treatment of chancre varies very much, but it is 
generally both internal and external ; one important 
point always to be kept in view is to abridge the dura- 
tion of the disease, so that it may not make any serious 
inroads on the constitution. 

The simplest method is the extirpation of the chan- 
cre, which may easily be effected at its first appearance, 
either by incision or caustic — the latter being the safest 
mode and that giving comparatively little pain. But 
then this method, safe as it is, becomes almost imprac- 
ticable, when tho surrounding parts are contaminated, 
in consequence of the difficulty in entirely removing 
the diseased places ; and hence it is most essential that 
measures for cure should be resorted to in the earliest 
stage of the disease. 

The physicians of the " old school " considered that 



130 SPECIAL DISEASES. 

preparations of mercury constituted an unfailing remedy 
for every form of the venereal disease. " The safest and 
most commodious method of Salivation," says Dr. 
Brookes, " is by mercuris dulcis, six times sublimed, 
given inwardly in the milder pox ; or by mercuria; 
unction, when the disease has got into the bones." He 
goes on to describe the effects which may be supposed 
to result from this system of treatment. u Fifteen 
grains of mercuris dulcis may be given every morning 
for four or five days, when we usually observe the fau- 
ces to inflame, the inside of the cheeks to be tumid, or 
high and thick, and ready to fall within the teeth, upon 
shutting the mouth ; the tongue looks white and foul ; 
the gums stand out, the breath stinks, and the whole 
inside of the mouth appears shining, as if parboiled and 
lying in furrows. The inside of the mouth begins to be 
whealed, and you may expect to see it in a state of 
ulceration, especially about the salivary glands." We 
think that our patients would scarcely submit to this 
mode of cure, and consent to have their " mouths par- 
boiled and lying in furrows " by taking mercuris dulcis, 
And yet the present age is not free from men who 
resort at all times to this dangerous specific. The cele- 
brated Dr. Hunter was a great advocate for the mer- 
curial system of cure. Doubtless the potent quality of 
mercury was well understood by him, and in his hands 
may have proved advantageous in many 'cases, but 
there is no question that many victims have been made 
to the practice of administering this powerful agent 
spontaneously in all cases of venereal contamination. 



SPECIAL DISEASES. 131 

For we are told by the advocates of the use of mer- 
cury that " should the salivation be attended with a 
cardialgia, or violent pains and torture, at the stomach, 
perpetual and incessant retchings, diliquium, cold 
sweats — there is great danger to be apprehended." 
Many forms of venereal sore are rendered irritable, and 
evidently disposed to slough and mortify under the 
action of mercury, and there are many of the older 
practitioners who can recollect the period when mer- 
cury, in the ordinary doses, failed to act as a remedy, 
that it was the practice to increase the dose, supposing 
that a more complete saturation of the system could 
alone arrest the rapid decay this preparation was itself 
causing. 

There is no subject in the entire range of medical and 
surgical science that demands a greater amount of prac- 
tical discrimination and skill than to determine when, 
and to what extent, and under what peculiar circum- 
stances, this powerful specific may be safely used. That 
its improper and incautious administration has been 
productive of horrible consequences cannot for a 
moment be disputed. The young and beautiful have 
become self-sacrifices to their inexperience, and have 
swallowed doses of this mineral poison, which has 
shown its potency in unseemly blotches on their bodies, 
and horrible scars on their faces. 

This dreadful and insidious disease exhibits a most 
important feature, which is the actual transmission of 
syphilitic contamination from the parent to the child. 
Infants may be affected with syphilis in a hundred dif- 



132 SPECIAL DISEASES. 

ferent ways. Disease may originate in the foetus, or 
before birth, in consequence of the impurity of one or 
both parents. The celebrated Dr. Burns, Professor of 
Midwifery, in the University of Glasgow, in his work 
on the " Diseases of Women and Children," observes, 
11 infection may happen when neither of the parents has 
at the time any venereal swelling or ulceration, and 
perhaps many years after a cure has been apparently 
effected." " I do not," he says, " pretend here to explain 
the theory of syphilis, but content myself with relating 
well established facts ! " Premature labor is not unfre- 
quently the indication of this ; the offspring presenting 
a puny, feeble, emaciated and wrinkled form. The eyes 
are red and inflamed ; the cry shrill, husky, and wail- 
ing ; mattery discharges are emitted from the eyelids, 
copper-colored blotches disfigure the shrivelled skin of 
the genitals and hips ; the nostrils are clogged with an 
offensive scab-like discharge ; the nails come off, and 
indeed many children are brought into the world in a 
state of absolute rottenness, unfit to bear the atmos- 
phere of this earth. 

In thus dwelling on the evil consequences of sensual 
indulgence and of the ailments of our depraved habits 
let me not be supposed to administer, in the least de- 
gree, to the morbid feelings and curiosities of the idle ; 
my design is to hold up the mirror, as it were, to nature ; 
to show the horrible deformity of vice, and the loveli- 
ness of virtue and innocence. My little book is a guide 
to manly health, and the causes that prevent it. Let 
me recapitulate my premises, and see if I have not 



SPECIAL DISEASES. 133 

fully borne out each particular head of my subject ; and 
then I shall prove that I have not lost my own or my 
readers' time. The physical grandeur of man is in a 
state of perfection when he possesses every physical 
function in its perfect and original strength. Every 
function is capable of increasing our constitutional 
happiness, when it fulfills its legitimate design ; this 
exercise is allowed to a certain extent and then it is 
natural. But when this natural exercise is over- 
stretched, it becomes unnatural, and consequently pain- 
ful. The gratifications of our appetites in eating and 
drinking are decidedly natural, but, if over-indulged 
in, they become hurtful, and consequently unnaturally 
taxed. All indulgences aie, therefore, more or less hurt- 
ful in proportion as they are pursued or restrained. I 
have shown the dreadful effects of debasing this phy- 
sical grandeur by the indulgence of self-pollution ; I 
have enumerated some of the interminable evils result- 
ing from excessive abandonment to sexual intercourse, 
promiscuous and even matrimonial ; but to give their 
entire histories would fill thousands of books a hundred- 
fold larger than this. I have shown that health is seri- 
ously injured, that the body is exhausted by this widely 
wasting cause ; and that not only is the physical great- 
ness of our nature destroyed by our own perversity of 
inclination, bui; that our children are made the victims 
of our vicious indulgences. 



CHAPTEE VIII. 



SELF DIAGONSIS J OR, HOW SHALL WE ASCERTAIN 
UNDER WHAT AFFECTION WE ARE SUFFERING ? 



In consequence of the frequent inquiries made of me 
" How shall I know whether I am suffering from sper- 
matorrhoea ? what are the symptoms by which I shall 
be able to recognize it, or by which it will be accompa- 
nied ? " I am induced to add a few words on this most 
important point. 

The symptoms are infinitely varied, extremely numer- 
ous, and differ greatly in different cases, both in number, 
nature and degree. It will be well, perhaps, first to 
put the most prominent of them into a tabular form, 
and then to introduce one or two illustrative cases. 

To render this tabulation more intelligible, the symp- 
toms are divided into local, i. e., affections of the gener- 
ative organs ; bodily, i. e., affections of the muscular, 
circulative, nutritive, and respiratory systems ; and 
mental, i. e., affections of the nervous system. 

In the first place, as being not only most definite in 
character, but also as indicative of the disease being 
more than usually deeply seated and confirmed, the 



SELF DIAGNOSIS. 135 

local symptoms may be mentioned. They are as 
follows : 



General Symptoms. 

Pollutions* accompanying expulsion of urine. 

Pollutions accompanying defaecation. 

Erection and emission upon slight excitement, such 
as the mere presence of females or juxtaposition of 
of their dress, etc. 

Emissions under similar circumstances, unaccompa- 
nied by erection. 

Nocturnal pollutions, with or without erection or 
consciousness. 

Diurnal pollutions, 

Spermatic urine. 

Contraction of the foreskin. 

Spasmodic or dull pains occasionally in the organs. 

Varicocele, or varicose veins in the testicles. 

Pimples on shoulder and forehead. 

Premature emission during coition. 

Priapism, or erections apparently without any excit- 
ing cause. 

Decrease of sexual desire or enjoyment. 



* The terms "pollutions " and " emissions " refer to involuntary 
escapes of seminal fluid. 



136 SELF DIAGNOSIS. 

Sanguineous emissions. 

Diminuition in size of the penis and other organs. 

Want or imperfection of erectile power. 

Climax — Impotence . 

In reference to general symptoms, it is necessary to 
observe that many, if not all, of these symptoms may 
occur in and denote forms of ordinary disease ; but if 
produced by spermatorrhoea, they will be aggravated 
in degree, and will not yield to treatment known to be 
eradicative of them in ordinary cases. This fact could 
be illustrated in a variety of instances, but one may 
suffice. In an otherwise healthy person an attack of 
indigestion, originating in inattention to diet, will 
yield to gentle purgatives, tonics, and other well known 
paeans ; but if the symptoms of iodigestion exist in con- 
sequence of the impairment of the nutritive functions 
by seminal losses, the ordinary remedies for snch symp- 
toms fail to produce their usual effect, as until the pri- 
mary cause of the symptoms be removed, the effect will 
not only continue but increase. In like manner dis- 
orders in respiration and circulation may arise indiffer- 
ently from spermatorrhoea, or from other causes ; in the 
latter case the remedies usually indicated for such symp- 
toms will remove them, but not so if they be caused by 
spermatorrhoea ; and it may be mentioned that it has 
been clearly ascertained that there is no single function 
of the animal economy but may not become deranged 
by long continued seminal losses. 



self diagnosis. 137 

General Symptoms — Bodily. 

Muscular, Respiratory, Circulative, and Nutritive 

Systems. 

Increased appetite or voracity (in early stages). 

Gnawing, and heat of epigastrium. 

Uneasiness, sinking, or faintness before taking food, 

followed by disgust or nausea afterwards. 

Want of appetite for plain kinds of food. 

Weight of epigastrium. 

Quickening pulse. 

Flushed face. 

Acid eructations. 

Acrid heat at the upper part of oesophagus. 

Alteration in secretions of liver and pancreas. 

Evolution of flatus. 

Colic. 

Griping. 

Difficulties of breathing, and cough. 

Distension of stomach and intestines. 

Muscular flaccidity. 

Excessive mucous secretions. 

Irregular action of the heart. 

Apoplexy. 

Liquid and unnatural stools. 

Diarrhoea. 



138 SELF DIAGNOSIS. 

Inflammation of rectum. 

Constipation. 

Loss of substance. 

Cadaverous appearance of skin. 

Hollow, sunken eyes. 

Extreme sensibility to cold. 

Rheumatism. 

Loss of hair. 

Pulmonary catarrh. 

Indolence, or indisposition to exercise. 

Lassitude. 

Fatigue on slight exertion. 

Climax — Confirmed Debility. 



General Symptoms — Mental. 
Nervous System. 
Restlessness. 
Sighing. 

Sensation of congestion. 
Want of energy. 
Uncertainty of tone of Yoice. 
Nervous asthma. 
Vertigo. 
Want of purpose. 



SELF DIAGNOSIS. 139 

Dimness of sigbt. 

Weakness of hearing. 

Aversion to society. 

Blushing. 

Want of confidence. 

Avoidance of conversation. 

Desire for solitude. 

Listlessness, and inability to fix the attention. 

Cowardice. 

Depression of spirits. 

Giddiness. 

Loss of memory. 

Excitability of temper. 

Moroseness. 

Want of fixity of attention. 

Disposition to ruminate. 

Trembling of the hands. 

Sudden pallor. 

Lachrimosity. 

Tremor from slight cause. 

Pains in the back of the head or spine. 

Pain over the eyes. _ 



140 SELF DIAGNOSIS. 

Disturbed and unrefreshed sleep. 
Strange and lascivious dreams. 
Hypochondrias. 

Climax — Insanity. 



CHAPTER IX. 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 



I will conclude this essay with the narration of a few 
cases which have occurred in my practice ; but, in so 
doing, I wish it to be distinctly understood that no dan- 
ger of publicity is hazarded by those who have already 
consulted me, or who may hereafter place themselves 
under my care. They are simply selected from hun- 
dreds as illustrative of my treatment, or from contain- 
ing some points of interest, and are published with the 
full consent and approval of the gentlemen to whom 
they refer. 

CASES. 

Milivaukee, III, 

A. B., a farmer, aged 28. Whilst at school he had 
been led into the habit of self-pollution, which he had 
continued for some years. Having become aware of 
the sin and danger of the act, he had discontinued it ; 
but, on attempting to gratify his passions by the natural 
means, he found to his dismay that he was totally un- 
able to accomplish the sexual act. The penis was inca- 
pable of firm and vigorous erection, and a discharge 



142 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

took place before an entrance could be effected into the 
female organ. His general health seemed good, and his 
frame robust ; this I attributed to his pursuits, which 
obliged him to be many hours daily in the open air. I 
would not undertake the case until he had given asolemn 
promise never again to indulge in the vile practice of 
Onanism. He was under treatment for ten weeks, dur- 
ing which he had the pleasure of observing a rapid 
improvement, and he was discharged thoroughly cured. 

The following gratifying testimonial was lately re- 
ceived : 

" New Orleans, Jan, 25. 

"My Dear Sir: — I am happy to inform you that 
your treatment has been quite successful, although when 
I first applied to you I scarcely expected any great bene- 
fit ; for, as I wrote to you at the time, I had been suffer- 
ing some years from debility and nervousness, which 
my friends believed to be constitutional, but which I 
know in my own mind arose from self-pollution. I 
heard of you from a gentleman who had been under 
your care, and was induced by him to consult you. I 
am grateful to say I had not been under your hands one 
month before I was very considerably better, and in 
three months I was as well as ever I was in my life. 

" I am, Dear Sir, 

" Yours, ever faithfully and sincerely, 
* "Ch. B." 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 143 

A gentleman from Boston called upon me about three 
years ago. He had been married seven years, and was 
very unhappy in not having children ; he possessed ex- 
tensive landed property, which would leave the family 
if his wife should die childless. His age was 33 ; his 
wife's 26. I found that, although he had led a free life, 
his virile powers were undiminished, and that he was in 
the habit of having a perfect connection several times a 
week. On examining his urine by means of the micro- 
scope, I detected the spermatozoa, which proved a waste 
of semen, and he admitted, though not wi fchout reluct- 
ance, that in his youth he had practiced Onanism. By 
treating accordingly, I was successful even beyond my 
hopies. His lady became enciente four months after- 
wards, and he has now two children. 

C. D., captain of an American ship, aged 35 ; about ten 
days ago had acquired a gonorrhoea ; he drank freely 
the day before I found him suffering severely from ex- 
cessive pain, and difficulty in making water ; the fore- 
skin had swollen, forming a " phymosis ; n there was a 
copious discharge of yellowish matter. C. D. was anx- 
ious to be cured as quickly as possible, as he was going 
to the East Indies in a few days. Ordered aperient and 
sedative medicines, fall doses of the Napolitaine Pills, 
and dismissed him thoroughly well on the eighth day. 

Capt. E. H., Baltimore, three months before consult- 
ing me, had observed a small pimple under the prepuce, 
or foreskin, after a casual connection. Having rubbed 
it off, it was succeeded by another rather larger ; when, 
thinking it was the " heat of the body," he took mild 



144 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

aperient medicines. It remained stationary for some 
weeks, and then began to increase rapidly; he also 
noticed a large swelling in each groin Becoming 
alarmed, he determined, by the advice of a friend, a 
brother captain, to consult me ; but, unfortunately, 
urgent business detained him some days longer in Bal- 
timore. I immediately saw that the case was very 
serious ; tne poison had acquired terrible virulence by 
remaining so long in the body, and, in spite of the most 
powerful remedies, he continued to get worse for some 
days. The chancres progressed so rapidly as to threaten 
the entire loss of the penis, and both buboes burst, 
leaving a large cavity in each groin. However, by the 
most energetic means, he was brought under the influ- 
ence of the medicines, and began to improve, though at 
first very slowly. This case required three months' 
constant attention before a cure was effected, and even 
then it was necessary to prescribe strengthening medi- 
cines for some weeks longer. I instance this case to 
prove the importance of an early application in cases of 
syphilis. Had this patient applied to me in the first 
instance, one week's attention would have been quite 
sufficient to ensure a thorough cure, without pain or 
annoyance. I was, however, compelled to order him to 
give up a voyage — fortunately a short one — but, being 
part owner of the ship, it was of less importance. I 
have lately received a letter from Captain E. H., stating 
that he is now thoroughly well, and as strong as ever. 
A gentleman, aged 26, consulted me for an inveterate 
gleet. About three years previously he had contracted 



NOTES PROM MY CASE BOOK. 145 

a severe gonorrhoea, for which he applied to his family 
doctor, who gave the usual remedies. But as soon as 
he discontinued taking medicine, the discharge came 
on again, though without pain or inflammation. He 
applied to several medical men in succession, but with 
the same result. On discontinuing medicine, the dis- 
charge re-appeared, especially after connection. He 
felt most anxious to be cured, as he was under an en- 
gagement of marriage. I am happy to state that in a 
few weeks after seeing me he was completely cured. 
He has since married, and there has been no recurrence 
of the disease. 

A gentleman, living in the country, sent some urine 
for examination, and stated that he was suffering 
severely from gleet, which had rendered him very weak. 
The microscope proved the presence of numerous sper- 
matoza. I, therefore, requested him to forward a single 
drop of the discharge, packed between two glass slides. 
This he did, and I found unmistakable evidence of the 
nature of his complaint. I wrote, in answer, requesting 
a personal interview. A short time afterwards he 
called upon me, and, in reply to my questions, admitted 
that he was subject to frequent nocturnal pollutions; 
he also endured great agony from piles, for which he 
had been under treatment several times, and taken 
enormous quantities of medicine. As it would have 
been inconvenient for him to come often to the city, I 
arranged to send him the required remedies by rail, 
and six weeks afterwards received the following grati- 
fying letter : 



146 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

St. Louis, Mo. 

Dear Doctor : — According to promise I again write 
to you, but really I do not see any necessity for taking 
any more physic. But I leave myself entirely in your 
hands, and, if you think it necessary, forward a bottle 
or two to the same address. There has not been the 
slightest discharge from the penis for the last four 
weeks, nor have I been troubled with nocturnal pollu- 
tions. No remains whatever of the piles ; and alto- 
gether I feel better than I have been for years. Permit 
me to thank you most sincerely for your kind attention 
and skillful treatment. I shall not fail to call upon 
you, to express my thanks in person, when I am next 
in New York. 

I remain, 

Yours, most repectfully. 

Boston, Mass. 

Dear Sir : — Please to forward me two more boxes of 
pills. I have no doubt they will be sufficient to com- 
plete the cure, judging from the extraordinary effect of 
the box I have taken. The discharge is almost stopped 
and I no longer have any pain on making water. Ad- 
dress, Post-Office (till called for.) I am, 

D.H. 

St. Albans, Vt. 

Dr. Jordan: — I am suffering from spots and 
blotches on the face and body, caused, I believe, by 
syphilis some years ago, although I was salivated at the 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 147 

time, and thought myself perfectly well. Do you think 
you can do me any good? If so, I will come over to 
see you. I may say my age is about 35. I am unmar- 
ried. My occupation requires me to be a great deal in 
the open air ; in fact, I am a farmer. Enclosed is your 
fee. Please to answer by return, and tell me candidly 
what you think of my case. 

Yours respectfully, 

M.N. 

I wrote, requesting a personal interview, and accord- 
ingly a few days afterwards, M. N. introduced himself. 
The spots and blotches on his face and body exhibited 
the true syphilitic character, and were exceedingly dis- 
figuring in themselves, without taking after conse- 
quences into consideration. M. N. became my patient, 
and followed my advice carefully. In six weeks he 
again wrote, stating that he was perfectly cured. 

W. H. K. called upon me early in February, 1868. He 
complained of greatly impaired health ; want of energy 
both of mind and body ; bad memory ; a dizziness in his 
eyes after reading and writing ; a singing and dull 
noises in his ears ; and inclination to melancholy and 
lowness of spirits, which all endeavors could not over- 
come. When in company and addressed by any one, he 
had a suffusion of blushes, and felt exceedingly irrita- 
ble, which after passing away, left a trembling in the 
limbs, and a sensation as if cold water were running 
down his back. Age 27, Occupation sedentary. Came 



148 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

from Providence for the express purpose of consulting 
me, having heard my. name casually mentioned by a 
geutleman. On investigation, I found that he had been 
practicing self-pollution for upwards of nine years, but 
had given it up about four months. After obtaining his 
promise to abandon this vile practice, I commenced 
treating him by the most energetic means, and after 
eighteen weeks received the following note : 

Providence, R. L 

Doctor : — I am happy to inform you that I feel re- 
stored in every respect, and I do not think I shall re- 
quire any more medicine. Even that symptom — fre- 
quent blushing — which caused you so much trouble, 
and me so much annoyance, has completely yielded. 
Acting on your advice, I am now engaged to be mar- 
ried ; and the first time I come to New York I shall do 
myself the pleasure of paying my respects to you in 
person. 

I am, sir, 

Very sincerely yours, 

W. H. Ko 

To Dr. Jordan. 

I was favored with a visit from this gentleman, 
January 1870. He reported himself in perfect health, 
and the father of a healthy boy. 

The first officer of the American ship, B., called upon 
me early in April, 1869. He was suffering from a severe 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 149 

case of secondary symptoms. He had noticed chancres 
soon after leaving Liverpool, for which he had taken 
blue pills, and used sulphate of copper lotion. He was 
slightly salivated, but the chancres healed, and he was 
delighted to find himself " quite well." The passage 
was fortunately a rapid one (indeed one of the most 
rapid of the season). I say fortunately, for ten days 
before his arrival, secondary symptoms broke out with 
the greatest virulence. His throat was severely attack- 
ed, spots broke out all over his body, his hair fell off, (a 
common effect of mercury), and his constitution seemed 
completely shattered. I also found, on careful examin- 
ation and analysis of his urine, that he was suffering 
from spermatorrhoea ; in fact, there was a loss of seed 
every time he passed water. This case required very 
prompt treatment, and for three or four days the dis- 
ease continued to make head against the medicine. 
However, I soon controlled it ; and, in the course of 
seven weeks, Mr. R. was perfectly restored to health 
and vigor. 

The master of a ship from the coast of Africa wrote 
to me in March, 1869, from Baltimore. His symptoms 
were urgent ; and he also had imprudently taken large 
doses of mercury. By prompt treatment I was fortunate 
in curing him very rapidly. As he was unable to come 
over to see me, the case was conducted entirely by cor- 
respondence. The following is a copy of the last letter 
received from this gentleman. It is dated April 17th, 
1^69: 



150 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

Newark. 

Dear Sir : — I was suffering from a most frightful 
case of African syphilis, and, after persevering with your 
medicines for a very short time, am happy to say I am 
quite well. I should like another small case of Purify- 
ing Drops, for which I enclose, so that, if any accident 
should occur, I shall always have the medicine at hand. 
I write this as a certificate and testimonial of grati- 
tude, and hope it may be useful to you. 

I am, dear Doctor, 

gratefully yours, 



Captain W. J., of the American ship, E. C, writes 
from Boston, June 13th, 1869 : 

Doctor : — Your French Specific cured me of a bad 
gonorrhoea in three days. Accept nry thanks, and send 
me six cases more for my medicine chest, for which I 
enclose the money. 

Remarks. — In this case, as in the previous one, I had 
not the pleasure of seeing either of my patients. My 
rapid success in curing them was due to the great care 
with which I elicited every symptom, to the prompt 
treatment I invariably adopt, and also to the intelli- 
gence and regularity with which they followed out 
my instructions and took my medicines. In the latter 
case, I was satisfied, by an analytical examination 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK; 151 

of the urine, that there was present only an uncompli- 
cated, though virulent, gonorrhoea, and treated accord- 
ingly. Owing to the facilities afforded by the admirable 
postal regulations, much of my practice is carried on by 
correspondence ; and, from long experience, I do not 
find it necessary to require a personal interview, 
especially when inconvenient to the patient. At the 
same time, care is requisite to be as minute as possible 
in the statement of the symptoms. 

Mr. N., provision dealer, from one of the towns in the 
neighborhood of the city, called to consult me in Febru- 
ary, 1868. His age was about 30. He had been under 
medical treatment for upwards of three years, for what 
was considered secondary symptoms of syphilis. On in- 
quiry I found that he had suffered from chancres five 
years previously, which yielded in a few weeks to treat- 
ment, not without some little trouble ; a bubo having 
formed, which had been punctured with a lancet, as a 
slight remaining scar still testified. He remained per- 
fectly well for nearly two years, when small spots, 
nearly colorless and scarcely rising above the skin, 
made their appearance on the scrotum and surrounding 
parts, also a few on the arms and legs. At first he 
scarcely noticed them, merely took a little cooling 
medicine ; but the itching and irritation became so 
great that he determined on having medical advice. 

The medical man who had previously attended him 
considered that it was an attack of secondaries, pre- 



152 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

scribed mercury (to slight salivation), hydriodide of 
potassium, and large quantities of sarsaparilla. 

Under this treatment Mr. N. remained for about eight 
months ; the disease apparently made no progress, but, 
on the other hand, he did not improve, and the par- 
oxysms of irritation were as frequent as ever. Coming 
to New York, he consulted a physician, who advised 
him to remain for a few days. He first commenced 
treatment with large doses of the bichloride of mercury 
(corrosive sublimate), alternating with quinine and the 
mineral acids. Under this plan he improved a little, 
passed a few quiet nights, and began to have hopes of 
recovery. But the improvement was not lasting ; less 
than a month after his return to business the disease 
made its appearance as severely as ever. It would be 
wearisome to detail the history of the case the two fol- 
lowing years. Suffice it to say that he placed himself 
under hydropathic treatment, that he was twice sali- 
vated by different medical men whom he consulted, 
that he persevered in a course of arsenic (liquor arsen- 
icalis, Fowler's) for nearly six months, and that, al- 
though he sometimes was comparatively well for a 
month or six weeks, on the whole the disease made 
steady progress, and was daily becoming worse. 

February 7th, 1868. He complains of sensations of 
itching, burning, aud stinging, which nearly make him 
mad, more particularly in bed at night. He had not 
slept an hour at a time for several nights. Rubbing 
the parts (the disease is principally confined to the 
scrotum and surrounding parts) invariably makes him 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 153 

worse, the relief being momentary, but he can scarcely 
refrain from tearing his flesh. Withal, his appetite is 
good, general health much better than could have been 
anticipated, constitution sound. 

On making a careful analysis of the urine, I was con- 
vinced, as previously from examination, that there was 
no trace whatever from syphilitic virus. In fact, that 
no connection existed between the disease and the 
chancres from which he had suffered. This he would 
scarcely believe, but I determined that he should decide 
by the result. My diagnosis convinced me that the 
complaint was a severe form of skin disease — " prurigo" 
— with patches of " psoriasis " diffused on the body. 
Mr. N. consented to place himself under treatment, 
without much hope of relief. 

February 14th, 1868. Mr. N. called again, according 
to appointment. The irritation during the week had 
been worse than ever ; he was nearly mad, and utterly 
reckless and despairing. In fact, it is difficult to imagine 
the torture of these cases, aggravated, and almost made 
unendurable from want of natural rest. Withal, there 
was a very decided improvement, and the case was pro- 
gressing in a very satisfactory manner. But I refused 
j}o continue treatment unless he would promise most 
solemnly to remain one month under my care. I con- 
tinued medicine as before, and, in addition, gave 
lotions for outward application ; not with the idea that 
they would be useful as remedies, for that was out 
of the question, but to endeavor, if possible, to allay 
the local irritation. 



154 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

February 21st. Not nmcli better. Still, some miti- 
gation of the beat ; tbe itching not as severe. Had 
slept two bours undisturbed tbe nigbt before. Con- 
tinue medicines ; cbange lotions, to be applied after a 
warm batb. 

Marcb 1st. Decided improvement. Two nights' 
comfortable rest. Psoriasis dying away on tbe body ; 
burning in tbe scrotum entirely gone. 

Marcb 21sfc. From tbe beginning of tbe month, in 
spite of one or two slight relapses, the improvement 
has been steady. He is now apparently well. But 
such is the treacherous nature of these complaints that 
I advised Mr. N. to continue medicine for at least three 
months longer. 

August 29th. I met Mr. N. to-day. In answer to my 
inquiries, he said : "No return of my complaint, Doctor, 
or you would have seen me without delay." 

My principal object in inserting this very interesting 
case is to prove that one must be careful in discriminat- 
ing what is due to syphilis from what has really no 
connection with 't. This is not easy, and can only be 
acquired by experience. 

General B. writes: " After trying hundreds of adver- 
tised nostrums, I was induced by a friend of mine tQ 
commence a course of your medicine for spermatorrhoea 
and generative weakness, brought on in the first in- 
stance by the unfortunate practice of self-pollution, and 
much aggravated by sexual excess. 

" I am sure you will pardon my peevish scepticism, 
and almost ungentlemanly sarcasm during our first in- 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 155 

terview, and attribute it to the true cause — a wretched 
state of health and unstrung nerves. Never shall I 
forget the kindness and consideration with which you 
behaved towards me. I need scarcely add that one 
month's treatment restored me to health and manhood, 
and I now feel a bounding, vigorous health of mind 
and body such as I never before experienced." 

This gentleman is now married, and has had no re- 
turn of the disease. 

A gentleman, a partner in a very extensive firm in 
Chicago, wrote to me as follows : 

Chicago, Feb. 11th, 1868. 

Dear Sir : — Knowing your high reputation and pro- 
fessional standing, I am induced to consult you respect- 
ing my unfortunate position. I am one who through 
ignorance (I may say fatal ignorance), have acted 
against the laws of God and nature, and injured myself 
I fear irretrievably, by indulging in the odious practice 
of self-pollution. Would to heaven that I had read 
your book sooner, or that some mentor had warned me 
in time of the consequences of my sin. I am now 25. I 
am a junior partner in one of the largest houses of this 

City, the firm of . I first commenced the practice 

of self-pollution at the age of 16 or 17, and have con- 
tinued it to a very recent period, once or sometimes 
twice a week. I now feel a heavy dragging pain in the 
left testicle, which hangs rather lower than the other. 
The penis seems small and shrivelled, and I frequently 
have emissions at night. My water is quite clear and 



156 NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 

apparently healthy. I, therefore, do not think there is 
any loss of seed in that manner ; but there is sometimes 
a slimy discharge at stool, especially when I am hound 
in my bowels, which is frequently the case. I find my- 
self very weak, and often have pains in my back. I 
am very anxious to marry, but know by experience 
that my generative organs are to feeble for coition. If 
I had married in my present state, I know I should 
have made myself wretched for life. Nor is this all ; I 
fear you must be wearied with this miserable confes- 
sion ; but I think ifc best to give you my entire confi- 
dence. I find my intellectual faculties are greatly im- 
paired, my memory is bad, and my nerves unsteady. I 
frequently suffer from headache ; I feel drowsy and lew 
spirited, and my voice is husky and not so strong nor 
so clear as formerly. I think I have now stated every- 
thing, and forward, by Adams' Express, a small bottle 
containing my urine ; though as I stated before, it 
seems clear and quite natural. I forgot to mention 
that when I pass water it frequently feels hot and in- 
flamed at the end. I enclose your fee, and hope that 
you will give me hopes that my case is curable. 
I am, dear sir, 

Truly yours, etc., 



Extract, dated March 25th, 1868 : 

All the urgent symptoms are much abated. I feel 
toore energy and my spirits are first-rate. Appetite de- 
cidedly improved. During the last three weeks I have 



NOTES FROM MY CASE BOOK. 157 

had only one nocturnal emission, and that was very 
slight. Please to direct my medicine as before. 

Extract, dated April 30th, 1868 : 

I consider myself thoroughly cured, and do not think 
1 require any more medicine, though, if you desire it 
of course I must comply. I have proposed to a young 
lady whom I have long loved ; we are to be married in 
about two months ; but, my dear Doctor, I will let you 
know the date when all is arranged, as I shall insist on 
your being present at the wedding. You will see me 
next week. 



CASES. 



ADDED TO THE PRESENT EDITION OF THIS WORK. 



Important Notice.— Most of the folio wing cases have 
occurred in my practice during the present year. But 
patients are respectfully informed that every case pub- 
lished, or in any way alluded to, is with the written 
consent, and frequently at the request of the patient, 
and that the most inviolable secrecy may be faithfully 
relied on in all communications. Letters are destroyed 
or returned to the patient at the termination of every 
case. 

No extra cases will be added to future editions of this 
work, and, for convenience of reference, we have num- 
bered them. 



CASE I. 

GENERAL DEBILITY, THE RESULT OP SELF-ABUSE. 

One evening, in the summer of 1860, 1 was consulted 
by a young man of a most prepossessing appearance. His 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 159 

whole make spoke of a naturally powerful constitution, 
and his face, when in health, must have been manly 
and comely. But his step was languid, his bearing like 
that of an old man exhaused and life-weary, and his 
countenance overcast with gloom and anxiety. I ques- 
tioned him as to his symptoms. It was the old sad 
story. He complained of palpitation, trembling of the 
limbs, dull pains in the back and loins, dyspepsia, con- 
stipation, restless nights, frightful dreams, loss of mem- 
ory and impaired vision ; but more especially of depres- 
sion of spirits and the vague haunting fear of being in- 
curable. 

On my inquiring if he had any idea of the cause of 
his sufferings, he frankly, though with evident shame, 
ascribed them to the vice of self-abuse, into which he 
had been enticed at the boarding-school where he was 
educated, and which he had only recently entirely 
abandoned. In addition to the constitutional symptoms 
already particularized, he was suffering from certain 
local affections. The generative organs were much 
reduced in size and exceedingly relaxed. He had been 
annoyed, he stated, by emissions, sometimes to the ex- 
tent of two or three times a week. These, however, 
had gradually ceased, whilst his general health, far 
from improving, had decidedly retrograded. This led 
me to suspect that he was suffering from spermatorrhoea 
the constant and unconscious oozing away of the 
semen, in consequence of relaxation of the ducts. To 
place the matter beyond doubt I appealed to the micro- 
scope, and upon a careful examination detected in the 



160 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

urine spermatozoa in considerable numbers, most of 
them, however, as is often the case, in advanced stage 
of decease, broken and mutilated. When I had com- 
pleted my examination the patient anxiously inquired 
if I could hold out any hope of recovery, or even of 
amelioration? I replied that his condition was cer- 
tainly very unpromising, but if he would carefully fol- 
low out my directions, and above all, beware of return- 
ing to his former malpractice, he might reasonably look 
forward to a complete recovery. This, my opinion, 
seemed somewhat to reassure him, and he now confided 
to me his greatest trouble. He was devotedly attached 
to an amiable girl, the daughter of an old friend of his 
father. He felt certain that she returned his love, and 
that the match would be highly agreeable to both fam- 
ilies. But he knew himself to be utterly incapablo of 
performing the duties of married life. 

After assuring him that nothing which my long ex- 
perience could suggest should be wanting for his restor- 
ation I supplied him with suitable restorative medi- 
cines in doses suited to the exigencies of the case. I 
also furnished him with a lotion for local use, and gave 
him directions as to his diet and general mode of life. 
In particular I sought to enliven his mind, and prevent 
him from brooding over his disease. In a fortnight he 
called upon me again, by appointment. There was 
manifest improvement. A careful microscopic examin- 
ation showed that the imperceptible escape of the sem- 
inal fluid had very nearly ceased. Some of tne consti- 
tutional symptoms were also abating. His sleep in par- 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 161 

ticular was sounder and more refreshing, and he no 
longer suffered from constipation and dyspepsia. I 
directed him to persevere iu the treatment laid down, 
with some slight modification which his increasing 
strength indicated. At his next visit I had the pleas- 
ure of ascertaining and informing him that the seminal 
escape was entirely checked. This great point being 
gained, my only remaining duties were to guard against 
a relapse and to strengthen the constitution and eradi- 
cate all traces of the disease. In these points I was 
completely successful, and, in fact, within three months 
of our first interview, he was restored to the full enjoy- 
ment of health and perfect manly vigor. He was soon 
afterwards married to the object of his affections, and 
is now the father of a large and healthy family — a cir- 
cumstance which sufficiently attests how complete was 
the cure. 

Remarks. — Had this young man contracted marriage 
in the state in which he first called upon me, the conse- 
quences must have been disastrous. For him to have 
fulfilled the duties of a husband would have been im- 
possible, and the very attempt would have aggravated 
his symptoms to such an extent as to render a cure 
highly problematical. The treatment of the case was 
very much facilitated by the good sense of the patient, 
who strictly followed out my directions, and never 
showed the least tendency to relapse into his former 
errors. 



162 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

CASE II. 

LOCAL DEBILITY. 

Soon after the recovery of the patient mentioned in 
the last section, I was consulted by a young man who 
made a very rambling, incoherent statement. 

He also had been enticed into the habit of self-pollu- 
tion at a boarding-school and had practiced it to a 
greater or less extent for some years.* About his seven- 
teenth year he had abandoned the habit, and had sought 
to gratify his desires in the natural way. In so doing, 
however, he experienced very little satisfaction, a 
highly significant fact. In course of time, being estab- 
lished in business, he deemed himself justified in look- 
ing out for a wife. He soon met with a girl who 
seemed in every way suitable, and accordingly married 
her. 

To his surprise and alarm he found matrimonial in- 
tercourse utterly impossible. His repeated efforts were 
all in vain, and had served merely to exhaust his sys- 
tem. He had been recommended to make free use of 
stimulants, which proved unavailing. He had con- 
sulted a variety of medical practitioners — some of them 
of very high reputation, and after taking a variety of 

* A very large proportion of my patients declare that they first 
learned the baneful habit of self-pollution at boarding-schools, 
and state that it was little short of universal among their com- 
panions. This vice, in fact, flourishes wherever boys or men are 
shut out from the companionship of females. Hence, it has been 
aptly called '* The vice of monks obscene." 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS 103 

medicines and undergoing sundry modes of treatment, 
was pronounced incurably impotent. 

The patient's condition was quite peculiar. His gen- 
eral health was of course far from satisfactory; still, 
there were no alarming and distressing constitutional 
symptoms. But the generative organs were shrunk and 
relaxed to an extent such as few practitioners have 
ever witnessed, and we were by no means surprised at 
the opinion that this was a case of confirmed impotence. 
Passive spermatorrhoea was found ? on careful examina- 
tion, to exist, and was doubtless of long standing, But 
so minute and ill-developed were the spermatozoa that 
they would have altogether escaped the notice of an in- 
experienced observer.* 

In a case of this kind ordinary modes of treatment 
would be of little avail. I have, however, at length 
succeeded in discovering and perfecting a valuable 
remedy for impotence which may be justly termed an 
extraordinary and wonderful specific, as it has peculiar 
properties for saving and nourishing the seminal fluid. 
This was at once ordered, along with a suitable course 
of medicine for strengthening the general system. In 
a few weeks' time my patient began to improve rapidly. 
I had to make use of special application to prevent my 
patient from putting his newly restored powers to pre- 
mature and excessive use. By this means I succeeded 

>■■ ■ ■ —* ~ 

* In such cases a microscope of great defining power is absolute- 
ly necessary for the detection and satisfactory recognition of sper- 
matozoa. In every instance we invariabiy use the microscope 
for the detection of disease, spermatorrhoea, and loss of semen. 



164 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

in keeping him within the bounds of a wholesome re* 
stiaint until the cure was perfected. 



CASE III. 

DEBILITY COMPLICATED WITH PULMONARY DISEASE. 

Early in the spring of 1863, a gentleman, 27 years 
of age, consulted me by letter. He complained of pro- 
found languor and weakness, irresolution, confusion of 
ideas, and aversion to business. At the same time he 
was suffering from cough, emaciation, night sweats, and 
pains in the left side and under the shoulder blades. 
He had been treated for pulmonary consumption, but 
his medical attendant found something abnormal and 
puzzling in the case, and having heard of several per- 
sons who, under my care, had recovered from very ad- 
vanced stages of debility, he was induced to apply to 
me. 

As his letter was, on several points, inconclusive, and 
as he lived in the immediate neighborhood, a personal 
interview took place. I found that he was indeed 
laboring under a pulmonary affection, coupled with a 
general nervous prostration. He owned that he was 
addicted to self-abuse, a habit which he had never for 
a moment supposed to be injurious. Indeed, I had 
great difficulty in convincing him that this unfortunate 
practice was at the root of his malady. I found that 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 165 

he was troubled with involuntary emissions, both dur- 
ing sleep, and even in the daytime. 

I informed him that, if he wished me to undertake 
the case, he must completely abandon the habit of self- 
abuse, otherwise there could not be the remotest pros- 
pect of his recovery. To this, after some hesitation, he 
consented. I next undertook the three-fold task of 
checking the local drain upon the system, arresting the 
consumptive symptoms, and combatting the nervous 
weakness. In this difficult matter I was often rather 
thwarted than assisted by my patient — one of that 
numerous class who, because they have met with some 
success in business, believe that they know everything. 
Sometimes he omitted to take the medicines ordered, 
and broke through the rules I had laid down for his 
general conduct. Sometimes he thought proper to take 
remedies which had been recommended him by ac- 
quaintances, and once or twice he even relapsed into 
his old error of self-abuse. Repeatedly I was on the 
point of declining the responsibility of treating so in- 
tractable a patient. 

At last, finding that every deviation from my advice 
was accompanied by a relapse, and that I never failed 
to detect him, he became more rational, and conformed 
steadily to my directions. From that time his recovery 
progressed steadily, and, in ten months from the com- 
mencement of treatment, I had the pleasure of pro- 
nouncing him perfectly cured. This case, but for the 
folly and obstinacy of the patient, would have been 
brought to a satisfactory issue in less than half the time. 



166 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

At my last interview with this gentleman I strongly 
advised him to marry, lest he might be tempted, to 
revert to his former unnatural and injurious habifc. I 
have since learned that he has followed my advice, and 
with most satisfactory results. 

Remarks. — Pulmonary consumption — though not a 
direct consequence of self abuse — is often indirectly 
brought on by this unnatural indulgence. Wherever 
a tendency to this fearful evil exists, any cause which 
lowers the tone of the system, and acts as a drain upon 
the vital resources, may call the latent evil into full 
play. Now, as nothing can be more debilitating and 
exhausting than self-abuse and its more immediate 
results, spermatorrhoea, we need not be surprised at 
finding the votaries of secret indulgence so often fall a 
prey to pulmonary consumption. 

Difficult as is the successful treatment of this disease 
under any circumstances, it becomes simply impossible 
when the strength of the patient is constantly drained 
away through a channel of which the physician is ignor- 
ant, and which he cannot, therefore, check. I was con- 
vinced that many young men who die from consumption 
might be saved if the evil were only traced to its ulti- 
mate source, and attacked there. Indeed, in all cases 
where the young are seized with gradual progressive 
decay, I should advise their friends and medical attend- 
ants to ascertain whether self- abuse and its immediate 
results be not, in part, at least, the cause. 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 167 

CASE IV. 

EXCESSIVE INTERCOURSE. 

A yottng man residing at consulted me. He 

had never been guilty of self-abuse, but had from an 
unusually early age been addicted to sexual intercourse 
to a surprising extent. He had married before reaching 
the age of twenty, and though he had from that time 
abstained from promiscuous intercourse, he had in- 
dulged with his wife till the health of both became 
seriously affected. He complained of dizziness, deter- 
mination of blood to the head, dimness of sight and a 
failing memory, together with a rapid decline of 
strength. Conjugal intercourse, which had for some 
time been very imperfect and unsatisfactory, became 
altogether impracticable. 

On microscopic examination, I found that he was 
suffering from passive spermatorrhoea, a conclusion 
which the constitutional symptoms decidedly corrobo- 
rated. 

I ordered him at present to abstain entirely from in- 
tercourse, and directed a course of powerful medicines, 
together with my remedy for impotence, and certain 
other preparations which the peculiar features of the 
case indicated. As the young man had naturally a 
vigorous constitution, and faithfully carried out my 
directions, the cure was completed in seven weeks. 

As soon as he was satisfied with his own progress, he 
consulted me on behalf of his wife, who had suffered 
very much from their mutual excesses. This patient's 



168 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

case presented many difficulties, but I am happy to say 
that in about three months , time she was completely 
restored to health. At the conclusion of the case, I 
seriously admonished these young people, as they valued 
their own happiness, to guard against a repetition of 
their former error. 

Remarks. — Though excessive sexual intercourse, con- 
jugal or irregular, is much less hurtful than the un- 
natural habit of self-abase, it may, and often does, when 
persisted in, produce results of a very similar kind. 
Many persons foolishly imagine that if married they 
may indulge to any extent with impunity. This is an 
utter mistake. It must further be remembered that 
matrimonial excess in many cases prevents conception, 
and thus frustrates the prospect of offspring. 



CASE V 

SEDENTARY HABITS AND INTENSE STUDY. 

A Gentleman, aged 31, consulted me on account of 
rapidly increasing prostration of body and mind. His 
employment compelled him to spend a very large part 
of his time in the most complex and abstruse mathe- 
matical calculations, and his scanty leisure was devoted 
to abstract scientific research. According to his own 
statement he found himself suddenly attacked with 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 169 

pains in the head, dimness of sight, forgetfulness, and 
especially with a confusion of ideas which threatened 
to render him totally unfit for his position. He found 
himself frequently overcome with sorrow, even to tears, 
without any ostensible cause. His sleep was also rest- 
less and unrefreshing, and he labored under confirmed 
dyspepsia and the most obstinate constipation. He had 
consulted various physicians and surgeons without re- 
ceiving* any material benefit. 

Here, too, the existence of passive spermatorrhoea 
was proved by microscopic examination. But whence 
had it arisen ? I very soon satisfied myself that my 
patient had neither been addicted to self-abuse nor to 
sexual excesses. He stated, and I have every reason to 
believe with perfect truth, that he had never had any 
intercourse with a female. It was plain that his seden- 
tary habits had brought on constipation ; that intense 
study had lowered the energies of the whole system 5 
and that these two causes, together with the weakness 
of the generative organs springing from total disuse, 
had established spermatorrhoea. 

In this case it was first of all very needful to over- 
come the obstinate constipation, which by occasioning 
chronic irritation of the rectum, had sympathetically 
affected the spermatic ducts ; and then to obviate the 
mischief already done, and impart new vigor to the en- 
feebled system. For these purposes, I directed, as far 
as possible, an entire alteration of the patient's habits. 
I advised him to devote all his Jeisure to bodily exer- 
cise and to enlivening society. The constipation yielded 



170 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

to the employment of a purgative especially adapted to 
such cases, whilst the general debility was overcome 
by a course of regenerating medicines. In two months 
he was completely restored to health, and could resume 
his studies to his entire satisfaction. 

Remarks. — Some persons, and even medical practi- 
tioners, entertain the mistaken notion that sperma- 
torrhoea can never arise except in consequence of self- 
abuse or sexual excess. This mistaken and very un- 
charitable view has, to my certain knowledge, deterred 
persons who have been affected with this disease from 
other causes, from seeking professional aid. Pernicious 
as sexual intercourse when carried to excess undoubt- 
edly is, its total neglect is, in persons of ordinary con- 
stitution, little less injurious, and may lead to the very 
same results ; a fine illustration of the truth of the old 
saying that " extremes meet." 



CASE VI. 

RESULTS OP INTESTINAL WORMS. 

A New York merchant, aged 36, applied to me under 
symptoms different from those described in the last 
case. He had been married for upwards of ten years, 
and had several children. Latterly, however, he had 
suffered from profuse and oft-repeated nocturnal emis- 
sions, irritation in the rectum and bladder, causeless 
and painful erections, together with dyspepsia, marked 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 171 

and rapid decay of strength, and great mental depres- 
sion. 

The patient's habits were regular, active and tem- 
perate ; he had never been guilty either of self-abuse 
or conjugal excess : what then was the cause ? On a 
little reflection some peculiar features of the case led 
me to suspect the presence of intestinal worms. Fur- 
ther investigation confirming my opinion, I ordered a 
suitable anthelmintic, which caused the evacuation of 
a large number of ascarides. Upon their removal the 
local irritation at once subsided and the emissions 
ceased. 

A short course of Regenerating Medicine reinvigor- 
ated his constitution, and in four weeks he felt, to use 
his own words, " like himself again." 

Remarks. — This is an exceedingly instructive case. 
No disease can cease so long as its cause remains in 
operation. Not all the strengthening and restorative 
medicines in the world would have given this patient 
relief, so long as a constant irritation was kept up by 
the presence of the worms 



CASE VII. 

INVETERATE GLEET. 

An engineer had suffered with gleet for five years. 



172 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

He had consulted several surgeons, and according to 
their directions, had used a variety of injections and in- 
ward remedies. He had sometimes received temporary 
benefit from treatment, hut upon fatigue, exposure to 
cold and wet, the use of stimulants, or sexual inter- 
course, the disease never failed to re-appear. The dis- 
charge was ordinarily very trifling in amount, hut by 
its long duration it had somewhat impaired his general 
health. He was, moreover, engaged to be married, but 
had been obliged to put off the affair from time to time, 
fearing that he was still in a state to communicate in- 
fection. 

Having subjected specimens of the discharge to a 
careful microscopic examination, in order to ascertain 
whether the affection was complicated with sperma- 
torrhoea, I proceeded at once with the active treatment 
of the case. 

I directed the use of the " Remedy," which, in ordin- 
ary and recent cases, is alone sufficient to control affec- 
tions of this nature. But, as the disease had become 
so inveterate, and the parts had acquired what may be 
called a morbid habit, I ordered a course of active and 
strengthening medicine. Regenerating treatment was 
finally used to invigorate the general system, and in 
three weeks' time I had the pleasure of declaring him 
to be radically cured, and in a fit state for marriage. 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 173 

CASE VIII. 

AGGRAVATED GONORRHOEA, COMPLICATED WITH SPER- 
MATORRHOEA. 

A young gentleman suffering from spermatorrhoea 
in its active form, in consequence of self-abuse, unfor- 
tunately contracted gonorrhoea. By the advice of a 
friend he had procured an astringent injection, which, 
however, he discarded just in time to escape an attack 
of orchitis, in consequence of its injudicious applica- 
tion. The local swelling and inflammation were in- 
tense, the discharge not very plentiful, but dark-colored 
and occasionally streaked with blood. The nocturnal 
emissions were frequent and profuse, and were attended 
with great pain of some hours' duration. 

My first object was, of course, to remove the gon- 
orrhoea, which, aggravated as it had been by improper 
treatment, rapidly yielded to the Specific Pills, accom- 
panied by certain subsidiary remedies, and within ten 
days was entirely arrested. The nocturnal emissions, 
however, continued as abundant as ever, though no 
longer attended with such severe pain. These I also 
succeeded in preventing by appropriate remedies, and 
finally I strengthened the constitution of the patient by 
the regenerative treatment. 

Remarks. — This case, if treated with the ordinary 
compounds of capivi, cubebs, etc., would infallibly have 
been attended with serious complications, and in all 
probability would have left behind it the harassing 
sequels of gleet and stricture. 



174 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

By my system of treatment the malady was totally 
eradicated without leaving any lurking mischief be- 
hind, and without injury to the constitution. And this 
result, moreover, was achieved in a patient who had 
been previously addicted to self-abuse. Now it is well 
known that specific diseases in such persons are usually 
obstinate and uncontrollable. 

This case strongly illustrates the folly of those who, 
when attacked with some specific affection, undertake 
their own treatment. Had this patient consulted me 
at once, without making use of his injection, he would 
have been radically cured in two or three days, and 
with much less both of expense and suffering. 



CASE IX. 

GLEET AND SPERMATORRHOEA. — THEIR SYMPTOMS, ETC. 

A young man, engaged in a large drapery establish- 
ment where many hands were employed, consulted me 
a few months ago for an obstinate gleet. It was. at 
once evident that he had been a votary of self-abuse, 
indeed, he said he could scarcely escape, as all his com- 
panions were more or less addicted to the habit. Some 
two or three years back he read one of my books, and 
became thoroughly alarmed and disgusted with the 
propensity. He at length had recourse to illicit inter- 
course, and thus contracted gonorrhoea, when, through 
unskillful treatment, gleet was the sequelae. In this 



CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 175 

dilemma he consulted me. Now, about this time his 
symptoms were complicated and many. He was ex- 
tremely weak, losing flesh, headache, cold perspirations, 
eyesight much affected, especially the left eye, frequent 
dizziness, especially when stooping, emissions, pains in 
the shoulders and spinal column, urine thick, passed 
frequently in small quantities. The result of my treat- 
ment was the complete recovery of this patient, and 
being restored to health, he sought up all those young 
men whom he knew to be guilty of Onanism — warned 
them of their danger, and induced them to apply to me 
for the necessary treatment. They all had the good 
sense to follow my instructions, etc., and were cured. 

Thus, through the candor, conscientiousness, and 
moral courage of one young man, a number of others 
were rescued from vice, disease and misery, and brought 
back to health and happiness. 

Reader, do you know any youth who is gradually 
succumbing to the effects of secret vice ? Let such not 
perish without warning ! 



CASE X. 

CONSTITUTIONAL SYPHILIS. 

A gentleman, aged 32, consulted me in a state of no 
little anxiety. He had in youth led a "fast" life, and 
had repeatedly contracted both gonorrhoea and inflec- 
tion of a more serious nature. For this latter disease he 



176 CASES OF COMPLAINTS. 

had been treated with mercury in great abundance, and 
had been pronounced cured. Believing this to be the 
case, he had married and become the father of two chil- 
dren, both of whom had lived only a very short time. 
Latterly he had felt his health somewhat declining, and 
was suffering from eruptions on the head, back and 
chest, whilst an ulcer appeared to be forming at the 
back of the throat. His wife, too, was evidently af- 
fected in a very similar manner, with sore throat, cop- 
per-colored eruptions, baldness, and very severe noc- 
turnal pains. 

The wife, who had not b.'en saturated with mercury, 
rapidly recovered ; but her husband suffered as much 
from the improper remedies used by his former medi- 
cal attendants as from the disease itself. Ultimately I 
succeeded in curing him both of the infection and of 
the mineral poisons. 



CASE XI. 

AFFECTION OF THE NERVES AND NEEDLESS DESPOND- 
ENCE. • 

A commercial traveller, 26 years of age, consulted 
me for nervous debility. . He had been compelled to re- 
linquish a most satisfactory and lucrative engagement 
in consequence of loss of memory, bashfulness and total 
incapacity for business. Amongst the more prominent 



CASES OP COMPLAINTS. 177 

symptoms he enumerated were trembling of the hands, 
pains in the back and loins, and frequent emissions by 
day and night — the result of a certain unhappy propen- 
sity. He never had recourse io sexual connection, 
being (as he stated) in fear of infection. At the time 
of his first visit he was quite incapable of following his 
business, and, to use his own expression, " only felt 
happy when alone." With this patient I had unusual 
difficulty. He was sunk in despondence, and, though 
he agreed to follow my advice, felt persuaded that he 
was incurable. I soothed and encouraged him as far as 
possible, and after he had taken my medicines for three 
weeks I had the pleasure to perceive decided marks of 
amendment. The emissions had ceased to flow, his 
sleep was sounder, his digestion better, and pains and 
tremors disappeared. His mind became also more tran- 
quil, and he felt once more a strong inclination for 
work. These favorable symptoms increased his confid- 
ence; after persevering with the treatment for four 
more weeks, I had the pleasure of pronouncing him 
thoroughly cured. He is now again on the road, and, 
as he informs me, can go through his work with pleas- 
are to himself and satisfaction to his employers. 



TO PATIENTS AND INVALID READERS. 



Dr. Jordan, having for many years exclusively de- 
voted his attention to the treatment of the diseases of 
the Generative and Nervous Systems described in 
the preceding pages, may be personally consulted from 
Ten in the morning till Two, and from Five in the even- 
ing till Eight, daily, at his residence, 51 East Tenth 
Street, between Broadway and University Place, New 
York. 

I wish my readers to be distinctly informed on the 
following points in my practice : 

1st. — Each patient may always rely on seeing me per- 
sonally on every occasion. I never consign a 
patient to the treatment of an assistant. 

2d. — I am always to be seen during the hours stated, 
but can be seen at other times by special appoint- 
ment. 

3d. — I never undertake a case unless I can guarantee 
a perfect cure. 

4th. — Every case is strictly confidential. 

By strictly adhering to these rules, I have, I am 
happy to say, been successful in consolidating a prac- 
tice inferior to none ; and have been equally successful 
in bringing to a happy issue cases which have been 
given up by some of the first men in the States. 



TO PATIENTS AND INVALIDS. 179 

One personal interview, even ivith patients at a distance, 
is highly desirable, where practicable. The advantages to 
the patient are manifold when compared with mere 
correspondence. A single visit will in most cases en- 
able me to form an instantaneous and accurate judg- 
ment, and thus facilitate the patienfs recovery. In the 
first place, many important questions affecting the pa- 
tient are likely to be suggested by a personal interview 
which would in all probability be lost sight of in cor- 
respondence. Secondly, a more correct diagnosis of the 
disorder, and a better appreciation of the patient's con- 
stitution can be arrived at, whilst a microscopic exam- 
ination of the urine, where necessary, will render any 
mistake impossible, especially in cases of spermator- 
rhoea. And, thirdly, where the patient is laboring 
under urethral discharges, which may or may not be 
produced by impure connection, one personal visit with 
a view to urinary examination, is eminently advantage- 
ous ; and the correspondent will be more than repaid 
the trouble and expense of a journey by the increased 
certainty and rapidity of cure. 

Country patients are informed that they can have the 
necessary remedies sent to any address or directed to be 
left till called for at any railway station, in a portable 
compass, carefully packed and free from observation, 
and they may be taken without confinement or any re- 
straint. It is well that patients should consult their 
own interest by being as minute as possible in the de- 
tail of their symptoms, age, general habits of living, 
occupation, etc, 



180 TO PATIENTS AND INVALIDS. 

The communication must be accompanied by the usual 
consultation fee, $5, or a P. O. order. In all cases 
secrecy is considered inviolable, as all letters are either 
returned to the writers or destroyed at the termination 
of each case. When notes are enclosed in the letters, 
it will insure their safety to register them at the post- 
office. 

For a long series of years most of the author's prac- 
tice has been carried on by correspondence only, dis- 
tance being no hindrance or additional expense to in- 
valids resident in the most distant and remote parts of 
the country. Hence, I have numerous patients whom 
I have cured without a single interview, but whose 
cases have been conducted entirely in writing. 

It is perfectly indifferent to me whether patients cor- 
respond in their own or in an assumed name, or by 
initials Letters may be written in English, French 
Italian, Latin, or Spanish. 

Patients are requested to keep the same initials 
throughout the correspondence, and each letter should 
contain the address to which the writer requires the 
answer to be directed. 

As an examination with the microscope is frequently 
of the utmost importance, any patient consulting by 
letter is requested to forward me a flat two-ounce 
bottle, filled with the urine passed on rising in the 
morning, securely corked and sealed, and packed care- 
fully in wool, (to prevent breaking,) in a seidlitz box, 
which, with the flat bottle, may be obtained of any 
druggist. The parcel to be addressed, carriage paid, 



TO PATIENTS AND INVALIDS. 181 

to Dr. L. J. Jordan, 51 East Tenth Street, between 
Broadway and University Place, New York. 

Dr. Jordan particularly wishes to impress the pro- 
priety, and, in many instances the absolute necessity, 
of having, at all events, one personal interview, which, 
by enabling him to form an exact judgment of the 
nature of each case, will materially forward the cure. 

Dr. Jordan may be personally consulted daily from 
Ten in the morning till Two, and from Five till Eight 
in the eveningy at his residence, 

51 East Tenth Street, 

Bet. B'dway & "University Place, 

New York. 



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